More about life with Bill

We met just after Bill returned from his mission in Denmark although we had been raised in the same ward he being 5 years older than I, he went into the service when he was 17 which made me 12 what 17 year old lookes at a 12 year old he returned from the service and immediatly went on his mission I do remember going to his farewell party there were three missionaries going out at the same time from our Belvedere Ward. two women and Bill they had a party on Friday night it was a dance. my friend Lois Peterson and I both being 15 her 15 looking 18 me 15 looking 12. she made the comment I wonder if Bill will dance with us. My remarks at that time was he is way to old. little did I know.

When Bill returned from Denmark It was at the time of the Gold and Green Ball each ward chooses a Queen and two attendants for some reason was chosen to represent our ward as the queen Bill's Sister in Law was our Gleaner teacher She suggested that Bill ask me if he could be my escort to the Ball. which he did and I accepted.

4 months later we were Married in the St George temple I was soooo !!! young an extremely young 18 year old, 11 months later our first child Craig was born , we bought a home in Pico Rivera where we lived for only about 2 years when Bill decided that he wanted to go to BYU and get an education so we sold our home packed up a U-haul trailer and mover to Utah me being 4 month's pregnant with our second son Mark.

Utah was Lonely difficult time I was very homesick, Bill was at school during the day and at work in the evening, came home and slept and got up and went to school. And me at home in a basement apartment in town with 2 babies no one to talk to Sick with streep throat most of the time.

we finally had the chance to move up on campus in student housing , life got better for a while until Bill got sick with headaches that would cause him to pass out He was just burning the candle at both ends not getting enough sleep he ended up in the V.A. Hospital in Salt Lake for several months. I ended up in the hospital in Prove having my appendix removed so it became apparent that we needed to move back to California and our families ending Bill's chance for further education. A dissapointment he never really got over.

We lived in several apartments for a time then we moved into his Brother Bob's home in Monterey Park while they moved to Ventura Cal. we lived there for a year por so until they sold their home and be bought our home in Whittier where we lived until Bill died in 1993 we moved into our home in 1955 just before Debbie was born our first daughter. we basically raised all 6 children Craig, Mark, Debbie, Kim, Todd and Derek in that Whittier home. had good neighbors and made lasting friends.

Tagged by Mindy and Kim

Six Unremarkable Things about Me
1. I love to crochet Doilies, Afghans, baby things just about anything, I have tried my hand at knitting but I would rather crochet.
2. More than crocheting I love to read. I use to read a lot of secular novels but now I pretty much keep it to Gospel related subjects. One of my most recent finds is a small little book about the life of Enzio Busch (a 70 from Germany) titled "Yearning for the Living God" I found it to be very spiritual and enlightning, I have read it 3 times now and am going to re-read it. I love marking certain passages and writing in the margins. I also just received Jeffrey Hollands Book "Broken Things To Mend" I have so many books I have run out of wall space for book shelves.
3. I love spending time with my family and Harold's family, it is probably my greatest joy.
4. I have a group of wonderful friends that I enjoy spending time with, we go to lunch or dinner at least once a week and we celebrate Christmas and Birthdays together. There are 4, sometimes 5 of us, we keep track of each other.
5. I enjoy teaching Gospel Doctrine (weird huh) I find that I learn a lot more than my class members do and I sometimes feel guilty about that.
6. I loved it when Harold and I worked in the Los Angeles temple together as Ordinance workers, it was a very special time in our lives. I miss Harold very much he was a real joy in my Life.

Harold

Harold became a widower in 1989. His wife Edda had been my best friend for 35 years. Before Bill died Harold was our home teacher and as I was at work during the day he always came and did the home teaching while I was gone. Much later... I found out that Harold and Bill had had a discussion about the fact that after Bill died (see previous post) could Harold have his permission to pursue me . Bill's answer was.... "fine but wait until I die." He did wait about 2 months and he asked me to go to the theater and see "Les Miserables", I agreed and then called and backed out. He tried again but he had his daughter, Claire, call and ask if I would go with her and her dad to see Michael Ballam. I had a dental appointment that day for a root canal, I told her it would depend on how I felt when I got home. Needless to say, I was miserable but Harold was undaunted and asked me to dinner and a play, "Forever Plaid" the next weekend. It was a fun evening and then the next weekend we went out to dinner and a movie, "Sleepless in Seattle". The next morning he called me and said, "Hello, this is sleepless in Whittier". He asked me if I slept and I said that I hadn't. From there it was history. We got married in September and we had a good 12+ years. For 10 of those years we had the blessing of working together in the Los Angeles temple. He was a kind, sweet, gentle man and he is missed dearly.

Bill

Bill and I were married for 44 years, had 6 children and raised our family in Whittier, California. Bill was diagnosed with lymphatic leukemia in 1983. With the knoweldge at that time they predicted his life span would be ten years and he did live for ten years and died in April 1993.

LaVar's 90th Birthday

Surviving siblings Bob, Hazel and LaVar

This Was LaVar's 90th Birthday It was at the home of his daughter, Shari Kelly in Anaheim Hills, Pat and Shari were wonderful hosts, Shari said that Pat does the cooking and she does the clean up.. what ever.. it was wonderful. The only ones invited were LaVar's surviving siblings and their spouses. A good time was had by all.

Bug Eyes

Kim and I at Disneyland.