Daddy's Birthday

Today would have been my father's 92nd birthday. He died when he was only 55....almost seven years younger than I am now. My mother has been a widow for 36 years....longer than she was married. They had only been married 27+ years when he died. He had Hodgekin's disease. our children were only 6, 5, 3 and 1 when he died. I always figured that he knew Richard before he was born seven years later. Sunday would have been my father-in-law's 96th birthday. He was born the February before the June that President Hinckley was born. It is always easy to remember the age because he was born in 1910. Just subtract ten years from the year. Mom & Dad had been married 58 years when Dad died. He died nine years ago. So our children still have both of their grandmothers but neither grandfather. All of our children were married by then.

It has been very cold up here in Idaho Falls. Friday it was more than -20 with windchill. It was too cold to go anywhere! It was colder with the windchill than if it were just -20. It is supposed to be warming up to 33 or so tomorrow and maybe even in the 40's by the weekend. I hope it starts warming up soon. I'm ready for spring. It was starting by this time of year the year we lived in Eugene, Oregon. I really liked that.

In Sacrament Meeting Sunday we had a professional scouter who lives in our ward talk and the scoutmaster. They gave very good talks. The first one told of a man who was born in Greece and was a youth there during WWII. Every year he would at his own expense would buy the fixings and prepare them for scout leaders who were on a retreat for a week. He was a chef by perfession. When asked why he did this every year he told this story. He said that when the Germans took over that many of them joined the resistance. One night they were all very proud of themselves for blowing up a power plant. Shortly afterwards, the Germans rounded up all of the men and youth in the town and lined them up. They were told that every 5th man or youth would be shot. He said as they commenced doing this and went from the first row to the second row where he was, it didn't take him long to cermise that he was a 5th person. As the German who was counting came in front of him, he noticed his scout buckle on his belt. He made the scout sign with his right hand and said, "Run, boy, run!" The chef reached in his pocket and pulled out the belt buckle. He said since scouting was responsible for his being there and alive and well, that that is how he honors scouting and those who work in it is to every year to fix that feast for the leaders. It was a very inspiring story. It was first told by Thomas S. Monson. The professional scouter also told of a troop in the Lincoln Stake in our area who had a physically challenged young man in their troop decided that they wanted to take this young man with them when they climbed Table Rock there by the Tetons. So they worked and got materials donated and then built a cart that they could push and pull him up so he could be there with them too. He said it really inspired him to see how they all worked together so that young man could be there with them. Then Blaine Ward, the scoutmaster got up and said that that was his old troop who did that. He was living in our ward at the time they did that but since he had worked with those scouts, they called and invited him to go with them. So he was there when it happened. It was such a neat meeting and left such a good feeling afterwards. I was very glad that I was there.