Happy Birthday Poppy!

It was Poppy's Birthday today! 


He passed away last October. We miss him sooooo much! 


Bianca, my four year old niece,  called Grammies (my mom) today and asked if we could get a balloon and a card and send it to him in Heaven for his birthday. What a little darling!!


 So, these pictures document our "Happy Birthday" for Poppy. 


After she let them go, she turned to Grammies and said "Heavenly Father will see the balloons and cards and say 'I think these are for you Hal- are you Poppy?' and Poppy would say yes and he would be so happy and then maybe Heavenly Father will let him come and whisper in our ear 'Thank you my little Ter Bear (that is what Poppy called Grammies since she was a little girl, his little Ter Bear) Thank you Bianca! Thank you Auntie Elisa! Thank you Kirsten! Thank you Francisco!'"  


So, sweet!!   Good times! 

Happy Birthday Poppy! :)

There is yet much to be thankful for...

Last night I drove to my grandmother's home to help her get ready for bed.  My mom was taking care of her last night, but due to a knee injury she was unable to do the lifting required to help MorMor change to her pajamas, and get into bed, so I offered to help.  Cute MorMor!!  She seemed a little more like her old self last night, at least for a little while.  She smiled and laughed and it was nice :)  After I got her in bed, she said sort of a prayer - she sometimes starts out saying something, in this case expressing gratitude to my mom and I for helping her so much last night, for making the day as pleasant as possible, and then it ends up as a prayer.  She said this phrase that stuck out to me:  "There is yet much to be thankful for."  I thought about that - there is yet much to be thankful for.  My little grandma is so old, her body is not doing anything that she would like it to do.  She is lonesome for her sweetheart.  She has dementia.  She is dying.  And yet there is much to be thankful for.  She then said "I would like to close that in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."  What a sweet prayer of gratitude!  I thought about how I need to be more like that - even in the midst of the trial there is yet much to be thankful for.  MorMor is still teaching me.

The Amazing Plan of Happiness

Yesterday was Easter.  I  was thinking about the Savior and the Atonement he preformed for us all so that we would have the possibility of doing so many things.  We can be reunited with our bodies after we die.  We can be with our loved ones again - He took the sting of death away!  We can repent of sins, we can be comforted in our trials and sorrows.  I know I don't understand a hundredth part of how the Atonement works, but I know it does and I know that I will be forever grateful to Jesus Christ for doing this for me.  My grandfather passed away six months ago, and now my grandmother is coming close to the time when she will be with him again.  I am so sad to lose them - but really I am sad that I don't get to see them and associate with them - for a time.  I am excited and happy to know that I will be with them again!  Because of Jesus Christ we belong to each other - F O R E V E R!!!  I just love the gospel and I am grateful for the testimony that Jesus Christ lives, and because He lives we will too.  :)

Life

True Blue Friends!  Elisa & Poppy
at Danish Christmas Eve about 1978

This blog was created after a rather significant event occurred in my life - my grandfather passed away last October.  This was one of the most difficult experiences of my life!  He was my "True Blue Friend".  We call him Poppy.  I sure do love him and miss him!  A year previous he had been diagnosed with Mesothelioma which is lung cancer caused by exposure to Asbestos.  Due to his service in the Coast Guard/Navy during World War II and the exposure he received to this horrible substance during that time, his life was cut short.  Well, I know the hand of the Lord was in it all, so I guess it was his time to go but he was always trying to eat right, exercise and keep his body healthy.  I really think he could have lived another 10 years.  Even though he was already sick, a week prior to the surgery during where the cancer was discovered he was at the clubhouse lifting weights!

Now, my grandma - MorMor we call her, (which being interpreted from the Danish is "Mother's Mother")  is coming to the end of her mortal life.  It's the greatest desire of her heart to go be with our Poppy - her Hal.  She is so lonesome for him.  She is getting weaker by the day.

The other night I was there taking care of her.  She had fallen earlier and was pretty nervous about falling again.  She wasn't too sure that I am big enough or strong enough to hold her up should she fall.  In her own words she was frantic, thinking that I wouldn't be able to help her.  I tried reassuring her that before Poppy had died there were a couple of times I was helping him and he completely lost his strength yet I was able to catch him and hold him up.  She felt a little better, but was still skeptical.  I asked if she'd like to have a prayer - so we prayed for her safety and strength, for my ability to hold her up and help her should she fall, and expressed gratitude for the kindness and help given by her caretaker Julia.  This seemed to help MorMor a little, but she was still feeling anxious.  I asked her if she'd like to have a priesthood blessing.  Oh!  Yes!  So, the hunt began to find someone who was worthy and available.  It sure is hard sometimes not having the priesthood in your home!  My brother Richard answered the phone was was both  happy and willing to come - he canceled something he already had planned that evening to come out.  While we waited for him, she was still nervous.   I felt so sad for her and wanted to alleviate her anxiety.  The thought came to offer her a foot rub.  I remembered that when I was very sick with a kidney stone and the pain was excruciating, my mom had given me a foot rub which really calmed me down and it was almost like she pulled the pain right out of my body.  So I offered and she said yes.  She calmed down and relaxed.  The spirit in the home changed to calm and peace.  As I was rubbing her feet there were so many thoughts running through my mind, almost like my human brain wasn't enough to process them all.  I thought of her and her life, I thought of the Savior and how he served his apostles by washing their feet.  I felt a little like him as I was serving her in this way.  I thought of a line in my patriarchal blessing that says "you will receive grace as you give grace".  I felt like at that moment I was offering grace to my MorMor.  I was helping her do something that she couldn't do herself.

When he arrived, not long after our conversation, he was dressed in the uniform of the priesthood - a suit and tie.  He is sure handsome!  And he talked so kindly to MorMor.  She expressed her concerns and he gave her a blessing.  It was one of the sweetest experiences of my life.  I could tell that he was really trying to listen to the Spirit and say the things Heavenly Father wanted MorMor to know.  He mentioned Poppy and how he is with her and watching and wants to be with her just as much as she is wanting to be with him.  He said many wonderful things about her family on both sides of the veil who are eager to help her, about how much Heavenly Father loves her, and that when He thinks of her he feels joy.  This blessing really helped her - she was more calm, even happy.  We ate dinner, the three of us together.  It was almost like old times, before Poppy died and before MorMor was sickly and old.  Later she and I looked through some old photographs of her and Poppy when they were young , during his mission and then some from when they were courting.  Fun memories!  I even saw a new picture where they were cuddling on the couch!  So cute!

MorMor & Poppy, Christmas 2009 a few months after his diagnosis,
he had just started Chemotherapy.

Oh!  Life is sometimes so sweet and beautiful!  And yet sometimes it can be excruciatingly painful.  It's so strange to have the sweet and beautiful and pain all at once.  It's so hard to watch my loved ones suffer. I want their suffering to end, but I know the only way that will happen is through death, but I want to be with them.  It's a lot of emotion to feel all at once.  I guess it is better that we pass through sorrow that we may know the joy.  I guess that's life...

The Parable of the Mice

 I was thinking about how fear sometimes leads us to make bad decisions.  I made one a few weeks ago when I discovered there were mice in my house.  I signed up with a pest control company to get their services for a crazy amount of money because I just wanted the mice to be gone.  I was willing to do anything.  After some time passed in which I was able to calm down slightly and talk with family and friends I realized that I had made a bad decision.  Luckily I was able to get out of the agreement and don't have to pay the money.  

During that same week I attended a Relief Society weekday meeting where one of the sisters was sharing her insights regarding social situations.  This great sister, who is an amazing speaker, taught us that we need to make our first response one of kindness and that we ought to approach every new social situation in a positive light - see it as a journey of discovery, one in which we can discover new exciting things about a new person rather than anticipating that the journey will end in rejection, from either side.  I really liked her thoughts and I realized that sometimes I make decisions with fear as the motivator (more often than just when mice are involved) and that this is wrong and something I need to work on. 

 I guess the mice have been good for something!  If ever I have to give a talk on fear and faith I can share "The Parable of the Mice".  

I hope the mice will be entirely gone soon, never to return.  I am deathly afraid of them!

Spring!

Today was such a beautiful day!!!  The sunshine made me feel like Spring is on it's way...


And, I live for Spring!  Thoughts of  light golden sunshine and smiling flowers, umbrellas and rain showers, new green growing things, and more surprises that only Spring can bring help me get through the winter.  Today was like a little reprieve from Heavenly Father, a gift from Him to me (and, well all of us!).  He knows how much I love Spring, and He loves me so much, I think He decided to give me a few days of it.  Oh, how I am blessed!

Hooray for Spring!!!

I wonder...

I was working on a project for church today - something I am excited about and looking forward to putting into action.  Anyway, as I was researching and studying I came across this quote by Henry Ward Beecher:

There are persons so radiant,

so genial, so kind,

so pleasure-bearing,

that you instinctively feel, 

in their presence,

that they do you good,

that their coming into a room

is like bringing a lamp there.

Mr. Beecher's words made me wonder how people perceive me, or think of me.  I wonder, do I make people feel this way?  Do they feel like I do them good?  Do I light up a room simply by walking into it, or by leaving it?  I have always wanted to make others feel good just by being around me.  A memory came to me, just as I was typing out these thoughts - I was a student at Rick's College, and as shy as a person could possibly be.  Terribly, painfully shy.  I was taking an interpersonal communications class that was required for the program I was in.  A project was assigned by the professor to write something nice about each person in the class on a 3x5 card, make it anonymous, and at the end of the week we would give out the cards and be able to read what others thought about us.  This was a very difficult task for me.  I felt like I knew so little of my classmates, and since I was sooo shy and rarely opened my mouth how could they possibly know anything of me?  Besides,  I was invisible.  Seriously, I felt I was invisible.  I knew the cards I would get would most likely have practically nothing written on them, something like "you're nice".  When I went through my cards that day, yes there were a few that seemed contrived.  But I was surprised to see that despite my shyness some people really knew something about me.  They saw things in me that were deep inside, things I thought no one could see.  There was one that told me I had a beautiful smile and that I light up a room.  What a compliment!  Sadly, I mostly didn't believe it.  There was, and I guess still is a little part of me that hopes it's true.  I hope that one day someone might read this quote by Mr. Beecher and think of me...