ML OUR MOM

Diane Lindman Brown

As I think of early childhood memories my mind visualizes a fruit tree laded with beautiful and fragrant fruit.

Some of my early memories include trips to the corner meat market with Mom and Jerry, laying in bed on weekend mornings with Mom and Dad sharing little coffee candies wrapped in pretty shinny colored papers, a trip to the Salt Lake Temple to become a "forever family", peanut butter sandwiches parachuted in white napkins out the back window (from 3 stories up) so we kids could keep playing in the backyard, Mom bathing her babies in the kitchen sink and dressing them on the kitchen counter after lotioning, q-tipping ears, and finishing up with combing the babies hair with a curl in the middle of the babies head. It was a daily ritual.

Mom hanging the wet laundry on a clothes line outside our bedroom window (some days in dried completely other days in was still damp when she hauled it back in thru the window because the fog rolled in).

Mom's fresh laundered sheets smell so nice. When she could not longer hang out laundry on the clothes line because Dad bought her a gas clothes dryer, she mangled (Ironed the sheets and pillow cases!!!!!)

Mom was a great cook, with lemon pies, chocolate cakes for Dad, even chocolate eclairs!

Mom always looked beautiful on Sundays as she led the congregational singing. She always looked slim and trim no one knew she was expecting Suzanne she was so trim. Boy, did the sisters in the ward have a surprise the Sunday Jerry came to church and told everyone he had a new baby sister.

Mom was sure a great sport to vacation alone in the mountains near Lake Tahoe with new baby and 3 kids while Dad worked the week days back home.(no car to run to the local stores, had to pack all the essentials as well as all the food.)
Moving to Utah was a huge task for both Mom and Dad. Being in different states was challenging for husband and wife as well as children.

Great sacrifices for the their childrens future benefit. I can't imagine what it must have felt like for Mom to move into her dream home with only 3 bedrooms, 1/2 bath and laundry area complete-what an adventure that must have been cooking on a camp stove and doing dishes in the deep laundry sink.

What great pioneers the folks are and what a great example of faith and obedience to refrain from going into debt. (Not to mention working together for years to accomplish the building and finishing of a lovely home that we all enjoy visiting.

Mom surprised me royally when she secretly made a beautiful emerald green dress for a high school dance my first year at Olympus. It was a girls choice (the only ones I attended for the most part ). Mom even bought shoes and had them dyed to match the dress. I had absolutely no idea she had been sewing a dress for me!!! (She has always been so good a keeping secrets!)

She had the dress hanging in the closet in her bedroom, somehow I went looking for something to show her and ask to borrow it when I saw the dress- it still did not even enter my mind that the dress was for me. Sorry Mom, I had absolutely no intension of discovering your surprise early! What a dissappointment for you!!!! You'll never know how very beautiful I felt that evening!! Thanks for all your hard work and wonderful thoughtfulness!!!!

Then there was my wedding day, Mom sat beside me thru the temple endowment session in those days the session were live and we moved from room to room. I remember leaning over and whispering to her in the 2nd room "When am I going to get married?" That was 40 years ago April 4th.My, how time flies by on wings of lighting. Thanks Mom for all these and many other sweet and lovely memories .

Memories of Childhood

by Carol Ann Lindman Webb

Many memories of my childhood have dimmed over the years, but there are some of my mother which linger like the fragrance of an expensive perfume. I realize that my reality is not necessarily that of another, and that I see things through the glasses that I have chosen. And so it is with this in mind that I share some of things that are locked away in the increasingly far reaches of my mind.

I close my eyes and see a beautiful young woman with dark brown shoulder length hair. It is swept up off her face and lays in an abundance of soft wavy curls cascading gently to perfection. She is strikingly beautiful. Her mouth is well shaped with full lips that shine red with the latest shade of lipstick. Her eyes light up when she smiles. Her eyebrows are expressive and deliver a quick message of love, or, when needed, disapproval is manifested with the arching of one brow. Her skin is cream. Her teeth are straight, white and show freely with her smile.

She stands at the front of the chapel ready to lead the congregation in song. She is wearing a gold or burnt orange dress that has a pattern of black dots throughout. It is made of a soft silky material and drapes smoothly over her trim figure. She is wearing a black beaded broach on one shoulder with earrings that match. At times when the light is just right they sparkle just slightly, as if to testify of the light she hides within. She is mysterious, almost Regal in appearance.

Her voice is that of an Angel. When she sings, it is music from the heart and is a comfort to the soul. She reads music well and leads it with authority. I see her leading the congregation in The Spirit of God like a Fire is Burning and I hear the testimony she shares in her song......so does the rest of the congregation.

I am thinking she is the most beautiful woman in the church.....and that she will take me home very soon because she is my mother.

I close my eyes again and hear her reciting Little Orphan Annie and The Raggedy Man which she does from memory. They seemed real happenings to me, and I would shutter to think the Gobble-uns'at git you Ef you Don't Watch Out! I am three our four years old.

I see a house full of comings and goings. The kitchen smells and the people who shared our meals. I remember the many missionaries who blessed our home, though I can't see their faces now I know there is a book full of their pictures and thanks.

I remember wonderful trips to the Tabernacle for General Conference. Mom would let us purchase the box lunches the Relief Society would sell on the street corner. It would be such a treat...the sandwiches were usually made with white bread.

I remember singing together as a family. Mom's lovely voice would ring out and dad would harmonize. I am sure that is where I learned to hear and harmonize. A gift that has brought me pleasure throughout my life...one I have passed on to my own children.

How fortunate I am. My life has been blessed because my mother taught me so many things. Some directly some indirectly. She taught me to sew, to cook, to obey, although I have had a hard time with the latter. She taught me to love. Because of her fears she has shown me how to brake free and fly. She has encouraged me to be the best I can be. We have not always seen eye to eye on what that best might be, but during all my life she has loved me, sometimes in spite of myself. How blessed I am.

Thank you Mom.
I love you, Carol

A Great and Marvelous Blessing

The following was a letter that I wrote my mother a special birthday memory book that I made her in 2002 just 3 short months before she left this earthy estate.

These last few years of my live and been spent in reflection and gratitude for the rich Blessing which are mine. Apart of these reflections has been one of great love and appreciation for my parents, ancestors and my roots.

Some thirty eight years ago when I went to get my patriarchal blessing Nov 14, 1965 I was so impressed when Brother Nelson gave me my blessing and spoke about my parents in such a way that it touched my heart even as a young thirteen year old.

Although there have been times I was unsure weather or not you liked me doing those teens years when Richard Jensen was my heart throb and would drop me off at the end to the driveway after 10pm on Halloween Night. I knew that you were very upset that’s for sure.

I read my blessing often and although I didn’t always understand your punishments of rules or at times even standards, I found great comfort in these words from my blessing. When you left your heavenly home to come to earth to take upon yourself a body, your heavenly father had faith in you, while you were in his presence you had lived well and accomplished much. He must have loved you, for he sent you to a good home, to parents who would help you and have and interest in you, and he also sent you through a good lineage, for you are a descendant of Ephraim, son of Joseph who was sold into Egypt. It is a great privilege to come of this lineage and you should try to appreciate this and live to be worthy of it,

Then he went on to say Continue to honor and respect your parents. Seek their council and advice and be appreciative of them and expressive of your appreciation. Remember that the most loveable women is one who holds her parents in deep and high respect.

As I have tried to look at my parents through the eyes of my Heaven I have started to see what a great blessing that I had been given by being sent to your home. Mother I have been so blessed to have gotten to know you as a person not just a mother. Sometime we are totally unaware of the person behind the name mother.

I have felt it a wonderful privilege to be able to spend precious moments with you talking over the phone, visiting about your father, your youth your dreams, the things and also learning about the things that you enjoy in life. You’re a wonderful person and you have reached beyond the things that you knew as a small afraid child at the babysitters to

A successful accomplished intelligent Women. I thank you for always wanting to live on the high road. Being your best, striving to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Always learning and striving to improve and be the best you can be.

Faith, Love , Good works, Hope, Persarvince, These are the patterns in the tapestry of life that you have left for all who know you. Thanks so much for sharing your love, thoughts, memories and wisdom with me.

My pray is that I will be a better person for having known you. I treasure and reviver you and thank God daily for your precious life. I am so sorry that you are now suffering so, and it grieves my heart.I want you to know that I pray constantly for Gods mercy and compassion in your behalf. I know that my health problem have be difficult for you to watch always wondering what you could do to be of support to me and my family.

Now I also watch you and wonder the same things. The this that I have learned the last many years now helps me to have more compassion for you. I know that these times are hard for you mother. But always gain strength in knowing that your loved.

Maybe the question that I have learned to ask Heaven Father can help you at this time.I stopped asking why and started asking What can I learn from this.May God Bless with his abundant love and peace at this time and may Angel sure up. Love, Suzanne