I really dislike colds. Â This one has hung around for what seems like a very long time … eleven days so far … with no signs of abating. However, yesterday after the funeral (which I conducted amid occasional coughing episodes and lots of nose blowing), someone commented that no one would really know I had a cold. They’d just think I was emotional about Aunt Marj’s passing.
My daughter Heather wrote an outstanding blog entry about her husband’s funeral plans along with a picture of Aunt Marj that is more like her than any other I’ve seen. Thanks, Heather!
I lived in Tooele, Utah for a little less than a year from the fall of 1951 until the summer of 1952. Grandfather Gillett’s third wife (and older sister of his second wife) had a debilitating stroke and we lived with grandfather so mother could help take care of her. She died in May, 1952. In late summer 1952 we moved to Soda Springs as dad had taken a position teaching English at Soda Springs High School. During my growing up years we went often to visit grandfather Gillett and other relatives in Tooele. All of my remembrances of Tooele (pronounced two – ill – uh) are that it was always hot and dry down there. It still is hot and dry! I think I recognized two buildings in downtown Tooele…. Not much has remained the same in that town.
I attended the first grade in Tooele (the school has been replaced with a much more modern facility). My first grade teacher was my Aunt June. I’d often get mixed up about when to call her Aunt June and when to call her Mrs. Gillette.
We had a delightful visit on Saturday from my cousin Merrill Gillette and his wife Jean. They returned in January from a mission in South Dakota and were going to the homecoming of their mission president in Blackfoot. They came Saturday around noon and spent the night before going on to Blackfoot on Sunday morning. I think this is the first time we’ve spent any significant time with them and found they’re just delightful people. We want to do it again!
The list of things needing fixed on our motor home is rather lengthy and most of them will be complex. Time to get feeling better so I can get them done. We’ll be wanting to go camping again Real Soon Now.
I’ve been building up a desktop computer I’ve got here at home, converting it from Ubuntu to Windows XP so I can give it to a relative who really needs a computer. Why does this have to be so hard? Finding the drivers needed to make the computer work is very complicated, particularly the ones needed to connect to the Internet! There’s something wrong with this process.
Funerals for people who have lived a long and good life are more like family reunions than a funeral. Aunt Marj’s funeral fell into that category. I really enjoyed meeting again some people who I’ve not seen for many, many years. “Now, who are you?” was a common question at the viewings on Sunday evening and Monday morning. In addition, the Gillette Family Reunion which normally happens the second weekend in August on odd numbered years was generally planned during the various funeral events. Since Aunt Marj was one of the driving forces behind the Gillette Family Reunions, she was probably morbidly pleased by the planning that went on. The odd year reunion has been held in Hanna, Utah for the past couple of decades, I think. We’ve been once. We probably should go this year.
On the even years, the family holds what is called a “cousins reunion” which is held at a park in Bountiful, Utah on the second Saturday afternoon. It’s mostly attended by my generation as all we do is some potluck food and sit around and visit. The kids don’t particularly enjoy it as there’s nothing for them to do.
Forty years ago the first moon landing occurred. That was one exciting night, glued to the TV and being mesmerized by the TV broadcast from the moon. Forty years later we’ll still asking, “What’s next?” and aren’t getting any good answers.