Dear Sweet Sisters,
Thanks Jelene for writing about our mother and father and what they were going through leaving the church. Mother had lost 2 little baby boys due to miscarriage, one was born 6 months premature in Feb. and the other in Nov. of the same year. I was born in Nov. of the next year and I am just amazed at our mothers resilience for life and her belief system. I remember Cheryl saying that I was a blessing because I brought happiness to the family. That is what Donna and I have in common, we were both born after a time of lose and that is why we are both spoiled. Donna, you didn't know that you spoiled. Haha! Beth and I were shaking our heads thinking our mother was crazy or something to just keep having children. But that is what she did. She was able to have us and love everyone of her babies. She would take her newborn and sit by the stove or in the sunshine and rub them with olive oil. I remember watching her, as she loveingly touched and rubbed her new babies skin. The little one would stretch and purr through it all. It was such a wonderful feeling knowing that she loved each and everyone of her babies like that. She loved doing that little act of love for her babies. I remember her doing that with both Lilly and Donna.
Thanks sisters for the memories and the flashbacks. It is disturbing reading and thinking about our dear mother and all she went through but it is also healing to write and share about our thoughts. Happy Days,
Helen
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Donna's early memories of the ranch
My earliest memories are of life on the ranch. I have a few memories of the boys working on the addition to the house, but most of them are after that when I was a little older. I don't know if it was in my dna or if I adapted to my surroundings, but I remember playing in the play house for long afternoons all by myself, or with Lilly sometimes. It was the coolest playhouse ever because it had a real woodburning stove in it that you could really cook on, so Lilly and I would make the family dinner on our playhouse stove and it was so much fun. As we got older Mother would let us build bonfires at our pretend huts on the mountain and we would cook over an open fire and invite the family to eat fried potatoes with us.
I remember hating to hoe in the garden, but I watched my sisters and learned from them that they knew that they had to be out there for hours, so why not try to make it a little fun. They would talk and act funny and pretty soon, we were having fun and working at the same time. I try to tell my kids stories to inspire them to have fun while they work, but so far it hasn't worked for all of them.
It seemed we were always digging hundreds of feet of ditch so that we could get an irrigation system started up north or south on some pasture. It was so much work and it was just us girls and mother doing it. We would shovel until we all had blisters on our hands, or until it was done.
When I drove my golfcart back to my back vineyards to prune and just look at how they were doing the other day, I thought about us at the ranch and how we had to walk everywhere. If Mother told us to walk up north and change the irrigation, it was a couple of miles up the canyon and back, so it took us a few hours to just go do it. If only we had had a EZ-Go work horse golf cart, we could have been back in a few minutes. Even though we had it hard, we were very good at making the best out of everything. That is one thing our Mother taught us. She was always telling us to think positive and be happy, because we were the only ones that could control our happiness.
Donna
I remember hating to hoe in the garden, but I watched my sisters and learned from them that they knew that they had to be out there for hours, so why not try to make it a little fun. They would talk and act funny and pretty soon, we were having fun and working at the same time. I try to tell my kids stories to inspire them to have fun while they work, but so far it hasn't worked for all of them.
It seemed we were always digging hundreds of feet of ditch so that we could get an irrigation system started up north or south on some pasture. It was so much work and it was just us girls and mother doing it. We would shovel until we all had blisters on our hands, or until it was done.
When I drove my golfcart back to my back vineyards to prune and just look at how they were doing the other day, I thought about us at the ranch and how we had to walk everywhere. If Mother told us to walk up north and change the irrigation, it was a couple of miles up the canyon and back, so it took us a few hours to just go do it. If only we had had a EZ-Go work horse golf cart, we could have been back in a few minutes. Even though we had it hard, we were very good at making the best out of everything. That is one thing our Mother taught us. She was always telling us to think positive and be happy, because we were the only ones that could control our happiness.
Donna
Friday, June 29, 2012
Thursday, June 28, 2012
love letters
Dear sisters,
Yesterday I read through the love letters father and mother wrote to each other. The letters were full of love and a little frustration on mothers part. Father had gone down to work in New Mexico for Uncle Lee. It must have been winter, when he wasn't farming. Father and Mother were both scared about what their new found religion would bring into their lives. They were young and ambitious, and full of life. They were only thirty five years old.
Father's letter reads, "I sat down at the station and had a long talk with Lee. He said if he were to go out and talk with you, he's sure that you would leave me and cleave to the church. He said the church meant more to you than I did. I am so thankful you and I see eye to eye. I am afraid I could not do this thing without you. The path looks rough. I am sure as I live and breath, we are on the right road. The road that leads to eternal life... the continuation of seed. I asked Lee about what he thought about what I had given him to read. He said it didn't mean what it said and that Elisa R. Snow was misinformed. I would like to tell the whole world about this wonderful doctrine. I love it. It is part of my life. I hope and pray I may be strong enough to lead you and my family in the path of righteousness.
My love for you has grown so much since we've excepted the fullness. I didn't know love could grow as ours has.
Lee doesn't want to change his life. He could not stand to have his friends laugh at him as they will us. He could not pay the price for eternal life that we will have to pay before this is over. Love Wayne."
Mother writes, "The children are singing 'Before Me Lord' upstairs and making a mess. We need you so much around here. I can't take your place. Cheryl had to say the sacrament gem in church today. She also bore her testimony.
There are so many wonderful things ahead if we can only live for them, but I am so weak and lonely without you. I don't know if I will ever inherit these wonderful blessings. I cannot seem to love my enemies and I cannot seem to conquer my feelings.
By the time you come home, we will know whether or not I have conceived. You are so wonderful. On Feb. 3rd, James would have been a year old. I wonder how many babies I will have to bare before I have one to love. I don't believe I have cried as much in my whole life, as I have lately. I know I should be of good cheer, but I surely have a hard time.
I just read where Heber C. Kimball said the Prophet Joseph and others will come and select those who have been righteous enough to return to Jackson County and take part in the building up of the beautiful City, The New Jerusalem. I hope one of them is you. May we all be found serving Him. Your Loving Wife. Ilene"
So you can see that they were very sincere in their thirst for knowledge. They were searching for the truth. I feel for them. Reading their letters made me want to comfort my sweet mother. The anguish she went through, leaving her family and the church she had loved so dearly, must have been more than she could bear at times. They were both very brave and I admire them. Love Jelene
Yesterday I read through the love letters father and mother wrote to each other. The letters were full of love and a little frustration on mothers part. Father had gone down to work in New Mexico for Uncle Lee. It must have been winter, when he wasn't farming. Father and Mother were both scared about what their new found religion would bring into their lives. They were young and ambitious, and full of life. They were only thirty five years old.
Father's letter reads, "I sat down at the station and had a long talk with Lee. He said if he were to go out and talk with you, he's sure that you would leave me and cleave to the church. He said the church meant more to you than I did. I am so thankful you and I see eye to eye. I am afraid I could not do this thing without you. The path looks rough. I am sure as I live and breath, we are on the right road. The road that leads to eternal life... the continuation of seed. I asked Lee about what he thought about what I had given him to read. He said it didn't mean what it said and that Elisa R. Snow was misinformed. I would like to tell the whole world about this wonderful doctrine. I love it. It is part of my life. I hope and pray I may be strong enough to lead you and my family in the path of righteousness.
My love for you has grown so much since we've excepted the fullness. I didn't know love could grow as ours has.
Lee doesn't want to change his life. He could not stand to have his friends laugh at him as they will us. He could not pay the price for eternal life that we will have to pay before this is over. Love Wayne."
Mother writes, "The children are singing 'Before Me Lord' upstairs and making a mess. We need you so much around here. I can't take your place. Cheryl had to say the sacrament gem in church today. She also bore her testimony.
There are so many wonderful things ahead if we can only live for them, but I am so weak and lonely without you. I don't know if I will ever inherit these wonderful blessings. I cannot seem to love my enemies and I cannot seem to conquer my feelings.
By the time you come home, we will know whether or not I have conceived. You are so wonderful. On Feb. 3rd, James would have been a year old. I wonder how many babies I will have to bare before I have one to love. I don't believe I have cried as much in my whole life, as I have lately. I know I should be of good cheer, but I surely have a hard time.
I just read where Heber C. Kimball said the Prophet Joseph and others will come and select those who have been righteous enough to return to Jackson County and take part in the building up of the beautiful City, The New Jerusalem. I hope one of them is you. May we all be found serving Him. Your Loving Wife. Ilene"
So you can see that they were very sincere in their thirst for knowledge. They were searching for the truth. I feel for them. Reading their letters made me want to comfort my sweet mother. The anguish she went through, leaving her family and the church she had loved so dearly, must have been more than she could bear at times. They were both very brave and I admire them. Love Jelene
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Digging Through the Past
I am trying to get organized so I can go to my files and find the papers I am looking for. This is hard for me. I am like Mother. I have piles of papers in stacks all around my house. I know just where to find what I am looking for. I think... If it is not in this stack of papers, then it must be in this other stack. I look and look until I want to scream. So, I am filing everything.
I went downstairs yesterday and brought up the papers and letters Beth passed over to me a few year ago. Mother had given them to her. It was fun to look through them. There is a letter from Brother Guy Musser. I guess Father had written him asking him how he was supposed to explain his new found belief in Polygamy to his family and friends. Brother Musser told him that he was never to be combative. Just to tell them where he had got his information and that if they were interested in reading what Brigham Young and Joseph Smith really believed, they could read it too.
There is also the letter asking Father to come before the Stake President and council to receive his excommunication.
The time when Father and Mother left the church was very hard on them. They loved their families so much. They didn't want to disappoint them, but once they had read the teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith and the 132 section of the Doctrine and Covenants, there was no going back. You either believed it all or you didn't. Father wasn't one to go half way. And Mother couldn't deny it either.
It's pretty heady stuff, actually. You are told that when you except these teachings and you live the principle of Celestial Marriage, that you are among the chosen ones of God. You go to church and listen to your very own prophet. One who has been ordained of God. You sing the hymns with a special feeling in your heart that you are different. And you are proud to be different. You would give your life for your new beliefs or do anything your prophet ask you to do. Including marrying the boy you hated in high school, because the prophet received revelation from God for every marriage that took place in your polygamist community and you would never dream of going against a revelation from God.
I have often wanted to accuse father of getting into polygamy just because he wanted to make having more than one wife legal, if only in his own mind. But I think in the beginning, he was sincere and truly believed that Joseph Smith did have a revelation, telling him to live polygamy. And that John Taylor really did have an angel come to him and tell him not to let one year go by without a child being born under the covenant of Plural Marriage.
Father and Mother's decision to leave the church and join the Fundamentalists Mormons changed their life forever. And all of ours.... Love you, Jelene
I went downstairs yesterday and brought up the papers and letters Beth passed over to me a few year ago. Mother had given them to her. It was fun to look through them. There is a letter from Brother Guy Musser. I guess Father had written him asking him how he was supposed to explain his new found belief in Polygamy to his family and friends. Brother Musser told him that he was never to be combative. Just to tell them where he had got his information and that if they were interested in reading what Brigham Young and Joseph Smith really believed, they could read it too.
There is also the letter asking Father to come before the Stake President and council to receive his excommunication.
The time when Father and Mother left the church was very hard on them. They loved their families so much. They didn't want to disappoint them, but once they had read the teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith and the 132 section of the Doctrine and Covenants, there was no going back. You either believed it all or you didn't. Father wasn't one to go half way. And Mother couldn't deny it either.
It's pretty heady stuff, actually. You are told that when you except these teachings and you live the principle of Celestial Marriage, that you are among the chosen ones of God. You go to church and listen to your very own prophet. One who has been ordained of God. You sing the hymns with a special feeling in your heart that you are different. And you are proud to be different. You would give your life for your new beliefs or do anything your prophet ask you to do. Including marrying the boy you hated in high school, because the prophet received revelation from God for every marriage that took place in your polygamist community and you would never dream of going against a revelation from God.
I have often wanted to accuse father of getting into polygamy just because he wanted to make having more than one wife legal, if only in his own mind. But I think in the beginning, he was sincere and truly believed that Joseph Smith did have a revelation, telling him to live polygamy. And that John Taylor really did have an angel come to him and tell him not to let one year go by without a child being born under the covenant of Plural Marriage.
Father and Mother's decision to leave the church and join the Fundamentalists Mormons changed their life forever. And all of ours.... Love you, Jelene
Monday, June 25, 2012
Wyatt turned 18 yesterday and we had a graduation party / birthday
party for him. Brad got called in to work that morning so Wyatt and I
cooked and he entertained. He had about 20-25 kids over. They seemed to have a
fun time playing volleyball, swimming, and eating.
Three kids down, two more to go. Wyatt hasn't found a job yet. Maybe because he hasn't gone and looked. I should have sent him to Alaska with the Aunts. I"m tired of him laying on my couch. I guess he has it too easy around here. I can hear you all and your comments now. Maybe if Brad and I start walking around naked in our home when Wyatt is here, he will want to move out or at least go get a job.
Three kids down, two more to go. Wyatt hasn't found a job yet. Maybe because he hasn't gone and looked. I should have sent him to Alaska with the Aunts. I"m tired of him laying on my couch. I guess he has it too easy around here. I can hear you all and your comments now. Maybe if Brad and I start walking around naked in our home when Wyatt is here, he will want to move out or at least go get a job.
Have a great day, Lilly
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Mother
Our Mother was a prim and proper lady that fell in love with a handsome scoundrel and couldn't say no to his charm. That led her down a long hard painful road for the rest of her life. But she stayed prim and proper and kept her dignity. We ask her to help us write a story about her life. She said she didn't want anything to do with the book, that it would be to hard to go back over her life. She was from the old school where you sweep your troubles under the rug and hide them and pretend they do not exist.
Our Mother was a treasure, She had so many talents and was so giving. I remember when we lived in Short Creek AZ, she had lots of friends. She was always doing something for someone else.
When we moved to the Ranch she seemed so sad. She was all alone, no friends and stuck out in the boonies with just her children to keep her company. She was a task master. We spent hours out in the garden pulling weeds. Beth and I would go hide behind the house and play cars, trying to get out of work. At night she would read to us as we sat around coal oil lamps for light. Some of the books I remember were, The Last of the Mohican's, Huckleberry Finn, The Silver Challis, Tom Sawyer, Little Women, Pride and Prejudice. It made the evenings with no electricity and no TV, bearable. How did we survive.
One of the gifts she gave us was her example of good health. She said "your health is your responsibility, not the Dr's". We had an herb bible and when someone was sick she looked up what herbs to use, and got them from her herb garden. We drank lots of herb teas, and ate very simple foods. Not a lot of sugar or rich foods. Hell, we were so poor we didn't have money for all the good stuff. We ate out of our garden. Our Dad was too cheep to kill a cow so we could have meat, so when we did get meat it was a treat. We did have milk cows and chickens. We only went to a Dr. if we had a broken bone. Every Deer Hunting season we had lots of people come up and bring us goodies. I remember the first time we all got to drink our own soda. It was to much junk at one time and we were all puking our guts out. That's how pure we were back then. For having 18 pregnancy's she was a very healthy lady. I am very grateful for all the things she taught me. I love her, and I miss her.
Lilly
Our Mother was a prim and proper lady that fell in love with a handsome scoundrel and couldn't say no to his charm. That led her down a long hard painful road for the rest of her life. But she stayed prim and proper and kept her dignity. We ask her to help us write a story about her life. She said she didn't want anything to do with the book, that it would be to hard to go back over her life. She was from the old school where you sweep your troubles under the rug and hide them and pretend they do not exist.
Our Mother was a treasure, She had so many talents and was so giving. I remember when we lived in Short Creek AZ, she had lots of friends. She was always doing something for someone else.
When we moved to the Ranch she seemed so sad. She was all alone, no friends and stuck out in the boonies with just her children to keep her company. She was a task master. We spent hours out in the garden pulling weeds. Beth and I would go hide behind the house and play cars, trying to get out of work. At night she would read to us as we sat around coal oil lamps for light. Some of the books I remember were, The Last of the Mohican's, Huckleberry Finn, The Silver Challis, Tom Sawyer, Little Women, Pride and Prejudice. It made the evenings with no electricity and no TV, bearable. How did we survive.
One of the gifts she gave us was her example of good health. She said "your health is your responsibility, not the Dr's". We had an herb bible and when someone was sick she looked up what herbs to use, and got them from her herb garden. We drank lots of herb teas, and ate very simple foods. Not a lot of sugar or rich foods. Hell, we were so poor we didn't have money for all the good stuff. We ate out of our garden. Our Dad was too cheep to kill a cow so we could have meat, so when we did get meat it was a treat. We did have milk cows and chickens. We only went to a Dr. if we had a broken bone. Every Deer Hunting season we had lots of people come up and bring us goodies. I remember the first time we all got to drink our own soda. It was to much junk at one time and we were all puking our guts out. That's how pure we were back then. For having 18 pregnancy's she was a very healthy lady. I am very grateful for all the things she taught me. I love her, and I miss her.
Lilly
If you haven't guessed already, we had a very unique childhood growing up in such a large family. When I was two and a half years old, we moved from Colorado City, Arizona to a 640 acre ranch out in "The Middle of no where Nevada". The road to town was a very dusty (or muddy) 25 mile dirt road that then connected to pavement for a total of 50 miles to a store or school. That first winter, we had no running water in the house, so we carried our water from the nearby creek and visited the two seater outhouse on the hill. You might ask yourself, why would anyone want a two seated outhouse, but when you have 9 girls in the house and you have to hike up the hill in the dark to go pee before bed, you can bet that the two seats came in handy all of the time.
So this is where all of the fun stories can be told. When you hear them, you will think that we are talking about pioneer days, but it is actually the 1970's. Yes, everyone else in the world had indoor plumbing and electricity, but we were special, so we didn't. lol. The one thing we did have was each other. And in my case (unless Mother forced Lilly to play with me) I had my cat named Flake that I dressed up in doll clothes and strolled around the ranch. It wasn't until I grew up that I realized what a great thing I had in all of my wonderful sisters.
Donna
So this is where all of the fun stories can be told. When you hear them, you will think that we are talking about pioneer days, but it is actually the 1970's. Yes, everyone else in the world had indoor plumbing and electricity, but we were special, so we didn't. lol. The one thing we did have was each other. And in my case (unless Mother forced Lilly to play with me) I had my cat named Flake that I dressed up in doll clothes and strolled around the ranch. It wasn't until I grew up that I realized what a great thing I had in all of my wonderful sisters.
Donna
Mother
I changed my little girls room into my office. She's not little anymore. She hasn't slept in this room since she graduated from high school and moved to California.
This is the room Mother died in. I had the nice picture of her we used at her service leaning up against the wall, but when I moved my husband's desk in here, I rearranged the whole room and put the picture in my bedroom on my side of the bed, on the floor, with my ever growing stack of books. I don't quite know what to do with it. It's big. I don't really want to hang it in my bedroom or in the living room. So every night I put my pillow sham over the picture and say "Goodnight, Mother, I love you." And every morning when I make my bed, I take the pillow and put it back on my bed and say "Good morning, Mother. I love you." Some nights when I've had a rough day I have conversations with her..."You know what, Mama, sometimes life just sucks." She would hate me to use the word 'sucks'. She always used proper English. But I tell her just what's on my mind, and she listens. I love you, Mother. I miss you. love, Jelene
This is the room Mother died in. I had the nice picture of her we used at her service leaning up against the wall, but when I moved my husband's desk in here, I rearranged the whole room and put the picture in my bedroom on my side of the bed, on the floor, with my ever growing stack of books. I don't quite know what to do with it. It's big. I don't really want to hang it in my bedroom or in the living room. So every night I put my pillow sham over the picture and say "Goodnight, Mother, I love you." And every morning when I make my bed, I take the pillow and put it back on my bed and say "Good morning, Mother. I love you." Some nights when I've had a rough day I have conversations with her..."You know what, Mama, sometimes life just sucks." She would hate me to use the word 'sucks'. She always used proper English. But I tell her just what's on my mind, and she listens. I love you, Mother. I miss you. love, Jelene
Friday, June 22, 2012
Dear Sisters, We are going to have such a great time keeping track of each
other and talking about all our adventures on our Blog. We have Helen and Beth
in Alaska this summer, having their mid-life crisis adventure. I am home working
at JoAnns Fabrics, YAHOO! Lilly is in Las Vegas, sweating, feeding all the
neighbor boys all summer. And Ruth is in Missouri, gardening and raising her
bunch of hulligans and Helen's two chicks. And cute Donna is in Kentucky,
raising grapes for wine and trying to keep Brandon home, now that he has his
licence.
All I know is that time goes by way too fast. So love it while you got it and Go Be Amazing! love u Jelene
All I know is that time goes by way too fast. So love it while you got it and Go Be Amazing! love u Jelene
We are nine sisters who love each other dearly. Because of our
shared life experiences, we have a special bond. We were raised by an AMAZING
Mother and a CRAZY Father, who loved music and shared their gifts with us. The
time we spent singing (4 part harmony) together as children carved strong
connections that can never be broken. We didn't realize, as we practiced for
hours (and sometimes hated it), that we were building something that we would
treasure as adults. Our parents gave us the precious gift of singing together
and today we love it.
On our blog, we hope you find entertainment, enlightenment, a good
dose of humor, and maybe even some good advice. Now....GO BE AMAZING!!!
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