Our reunion is winding down. They never suddenly end; celebration goes on and on. We had such a wonderful time and there was so much joy and happiness to be all together again.
We started with a pool party at Cheryl and Paul's new home on Thursday night. Hires Drive In came and cooked the hamburgers and hot dogs. Mom and I had our second date at the Hires that is still in Salt Lake, It was the most perfect party. At one point, I counted 45 people in the pool. It was great to greet all those who came from out of town
Friday, we had an afternoon Session in the Salt Lake Temple. That was such a great moment to be there with family in numbers. It was one of my highlights.
That evening, we had a dinner at the Lion House for our Children and their spouses. It was great! I spoke of Mom and what she went through to have all those children. I reminded all those who came after Cheryl that they were not supposed to come as we were told there would be no more children. When we were in London, Mom was pregnant with what we thought was child #9. She was sick and bled a lot and had to be hospitalized. There was one ultrasound machine in all of London at the time and that showed that this was a molar pregnancy. The material removed could not be distinguished from a Chorio-Carcinoma. A urine test was positive for HCG, the hormone secreted by this cancer.
When we returned to Boston, she saw the world's expert in this cancer and he developed a sensitive serum assay for the hormone. He called me one night and reported that the serum assay was strongly positive so now we had tissue, a urine assay and a very sensitive serum assay for HCG all positive. Dr. Goldstein outlined a program of radical surgery, radiation and chemotherapy which had a good chance of being successful. He asked, What should we do?" I replied, repeat the serum test. We remembered a blessing Mom had received in London which mentioned future children. A week later there was a call and a profuse apology. The repeat test was negative and they had never had a false positive. Mom was OK. We waited a year to be sure everything was ok and Rob came on the scene and we were so grateful.
I reviewed the subsequent deliveries and the drama including the surprise of having twins and Mom's bout with septicemia with Bina's delivery and reminded all they were there because of the great Mother they had; there is none like her anywhere.
Saturday, we all met at the park and there was a carnival, games, prizes, soccer (the adults won this time) block ice sledding, a feeding frenzy with Pzza, Pop and Popsicles. Alison designed the cutest T shirt with the names of all 104 family members which we wore to the park and you can see in the last post. It was fun to have the grandkids find their names on that shirt.
Saturday night was a total family dinner at the Empire room of the Joseph Smith building. 103 out of 104 were there. Rob and other organized this mega family get together. We took a family photo that you see above. Tourists took pictures of us as we posed in this garden. There was a picture and video presentation that Cathy put together. Rob organized a great dinner. There was dancing until the DJ caved in.
Sunday evening, we had a family dinner. Some had left but 94 were still there and came over. That was a record for the house. All brought food which was totally consumed. We had a family night in the backyard with 94 present. We had our usual format of singing "Love at Home" and Mom gave a lesson on what a great country we have and what it means to be free. She had some of the kids tie up the oldest two grandsons tightly with rope and sort of forgot how to tie in this objec lesson to the point. When I asked about the bound up grandsons, someone yelled out, "Get them!" and about forty little kids piled on the two who had lost there freedom. I guess when the strong are bound and fettered, the weaker can pounce and the family night fell apart a little then.
We got things quiet again and we all knelt down in our backyard in prayer and thanked Heaven for all our great blessings and for each other.
It was a great reunion!!!!
Love, Dad and Mom
4 comments:
That was a lot of fun! especially the family night gone wild.
You have such an incredible family! I don't know how you managed to make room in your hearts for hundreds of missionaries as well and treat them like your own. Much love from me and Dave!
What a great picture!! I'll have to add it to the VIDEO! ;-)
Hi President! That's so neat that you could be in the temple with so much family! I overheard someone on Sat say that their sister was really late to something; her excuse - the SL temple was 4 hrs behind! Was that because of you guys? ;) ;)
I'm pretty sure you don't listen to country music, but there's a song that reminds me of you :). I remember you said that E. Dzierzon asked you, hypothetically, what you'd do if he asked out your daughter. You said you'd answer the door w/ your elephant gun in hand. :) Here are some of the lyrics:
I don't remember all that Spanish
Or the Gettysburg address,
But there is one speech from high school
I'll never forget
(Chorus)
Come on in boy, sit on down
And tell me about yourself.
So you like my daughter do you now?
Yeah we think she's something else.
She's her daddy's girl,
Her momma's world.
She deserves respect.
That’s what she'll get,
Ain’t it son?
Hey y'all run along and have some fun.
I'll see you when you get back.
Bet I’ll be up all night,
Still cleanin' this gun.
:D
Alles Liebe!
~Heidi
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