The Incredible Aunt Jeanne!!

There are special people in the world that have perfected how to love the world and the people around them.  One starring example is Aunt Jeanne, Dick's aunt who just passed away.  I love this picture because it is so Aunt Jeanne.  When she is talking to you, you have her whole undivided attention in whatever you are telling her.  She is a gracious, regal women in every situation and so much fun!  She will be missed and as the song says "because we have known you, we have been changed for good".  A sweet angel has gone home....and what a celebration was had there!!

Elder Medsker has always been close to Aunt Jeanne and her daughters and when he got a phone call asking if there was anyway he could come home and speak at the funeral, we had some thinking to do.  After much prayerful consideration, he called the Mission President and told him of the situation and President Clayton stated that it was very important to give proper respect to that generation and we should definitely go.

After making some necessary arrangements for here, and letting the family know we would be there for a very short time we packed, met Jonathan in Barstow, California (so fun to get to visit and talk with him) and drove all day Thursday arriving around nine o'clock that night...so glad to be out of the car and into welcoming hugs of family!!

The family all gathered and we had a mini-family reunion on Friday!!  It was so incredible to see everyone and I even got to play in the flower gardens!!  Elder Medsker took advantage of the trip and got a haircut from Ron, the first good one since we left Utah (that is another story)!  Amazing how much grandchildren can grow and change in four months!!  And be more beautiful!!

Saturday morning we drove to Logan for the funeral.  It was so good to see the Stock side of the family and mingle with great cousins.  Aunt Jeanne was the last one of her generation to pass away.  I love funerals in that you get to hear about things that you didn't know and see a different perspective of the one you love.

One surprise, when we walked in the first person we saw was our Stake President.  He didn't seem to be as surprised to see us as we were to see him.  He told us he had been Aunt Jeanne's financial adviser for years and when she found out where he lived she talked about her nephew who lived there.  President Waddoups and Elder Medsker served as Bishops at the the same time and he had mentioned at that time to Elder Medsker that he met had met his aunt and she told him her nephew was going to speak at her funeral.  Elder Medsker doesn't remember the conversation, but President Waddoups did was expecting us to be there.  Life is interesting!!

We packed more fun into Saturday afternoon, even got to attend a baptism of one of Sydney's friends.  We learned about the "moods of llamas", (you have to love girl's camps), talked and talked, laughed and laughed then hugged everyone goodbye and got up at four on Sunday morning so as to miss the Vegas/California bog down on Sunday afternoon and headed home to Imperial Beach, with emotions all over the place!!  And very, very sweet memories!!