Fifty-Five and Still Alive!

On Friday, I will reach the ripe old age of 55. As the joke goes, it's not so bad considering the alternative. This is not a thinly-disguised attempt to solicit gifts, but an opportunity for me to review the last 55 years. It seems to me that I have led a remarkably interesting life to this point. The last few nights as I have lain awake in bed (still a little nervous about drifting off to sleep) I have worked on my list and have surprised even myself at the variety of events and circumstances I have been able to take part in. I have had a front row seat for many of mortality's challenges AND blessings. And so, I give you....my first 55 years:

1. When I was ten, I was involved in a bad car accident in Lovelock, Nevada. This, in and of itself, is not very interesting because car accidents have been kind of a recurring theme for my family. But, what IS interesting is that I was able to write a story about the event which has been published in two different anthologies by Deseret Book.

2. When I was thirteen, I became ill and was eventually diagnosed with leukemia. In those pre-bone marrow transplant days there were few options for treatment and the doctors gave me about six months to live. My ward fasted and prayed for me and I became well. The doctors were astonished.

3. At the age of 17 I graduated from high school, attended BYU on an academic scholarship and met and married a Texan, of all things!

4. I gave birth to five children, whose combined weight totalled over 50 pounds, without so much as an aspirin! I spent five years nursing babies and more than nine years changing diapers.

5. We discovered, when our youngest was just five years old, that she had a chronic illness, leading to years of treatment and worry.

6. We participated in the Church's Indian Placement Program. As a result of the nightmare that that experience became we were asked to write a paper on our experience to be presented before a church-wide meeting of LDS Social Services. My 16 page paper was presented to the group, and, as a result, the Brethren scaled the program way back and then dropped it altogether. It was an inspired, well-intentioned program, motivated by concern for our Lamanite brothers and sisters, but problems both on the reservations and in the way it was administered made it almost impossible to work in today's world.

7. In February of 2000, my mother was badly injured in a car accident. She required months of intensive physical, emotional and mental rehabilitation. I took our four girls out of school and moved to Bozeman, Montana for five months to oversee her rehab. It was the hardest thing I had ever done. One particularly bad night the Lord spoke to me and told me that this was the purpose for which my life had been spared when I was diagnosed with leukemia.

7. I have held a number of callings in the church which have challenged and instructed me. I have served three times as a ward Relief Society president and once as a stake Relief Society president, receiving that calling when I was 31 years old. I served for seven years as stake Primary president. I have taught Sunday School, Relief Society and Primary. I have been ward activities chairman and stake public relations director. I have enjoyed most of my callings, but especially teaching.

8. I have done a lot of interesting (and not so interesting) things to boost the family's economic bottom line; babysitting, Fuller Brush, making and selling baby quilts, craft shows, and seven years of getting up at 2:00 a.m. to deliver the Bakersfield Californian.

9. I have been privileged to see a little bit of the world. We've been to Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, and Mexico. We've been to Florida three times. I was able to go to Hawaii and attended an LDS writer's conference there. I've seen Billy the Kid and Smokey the Bear's graves. I have touched the world's largest potato. I've lived a few miles from both the Pacific Ocean and Yellowstone National Park.

10. I have learned how to walk twice--once when I was a year old and again when I was 47 years old. The first time was easier.

11. On March 6, 2001, I was in a bad car accident (again) and spent a month in the hospital (see #9). Three years later, on the anniversary of that occasion, we were sideswiped by a big rig in New Mexico, sending our mini-van rolling over and over down the highway median. We walked away with just a few bruises.

12. We spent four years serving the Lord in Wasco, California in the La Rosa Spanish-speaking branch. I never learned Spanish, but I developed adequate piano skills.

13. In December, 2005, I helped to nurse my sweetheart through a bad case of cellulitis. I learned to administer IVs and stack pillows just right for elevating his leg.

14. In March of this year (I'm going to sit March out from now on) I did my part to bolster the local health industry's bottom line by spending 10 days in the hospital with a mysterious, as yet undiagnosed, lung ailment. Throughout this latest business it has been confirmed for me over and over that my best and dearest friends are my precious husband, children, their spouses and our twelve perfect grandchildren.

I think that we all have a tendency to tell ourselves when something bad happens that we "can't wait until this is over so that we can get back to our 'real' life." What I have come to realize is that this list (and many, many other things not on the list) IS my "real" life. These events weren't occasions for me to detour around in order to get back on track, but they were sitting right in the middle of my road from where I was to where I needed to be. This IS life. I love my life. Thank you for being a part of my first 55 years!