A Growing Family

I've often wondered what Mom would have done had she been able to look into the future and see 13 children standing in line to call her Mom. I know Dad would have turned and run fast.

Not long before she died, Mom was still trying to guess why dad, that witty, charming, and most handsome man, chose her above anyone else to marry. These letters tell us clearly that he thought she was the most wonderful gift from heaven a man could ever hope for.

Life with Dad was like being on the wildest roller coaster ride. Mom hung on through it all ---the ups, the downs, and all the crazy twist and turns that came to her.  I'm sure they both felt like getting off during some of the downs turns.

Mom and Dad lived in poverty for many years with so many mouths to feed and shoes to buy, We children didn't have enough sense to know we were poor until the kids at school pointed it out to us.

We had a mother who loved us and was always there. She considered us her jewels like the Primary Story I heard at Church in a lesson once.

"When a certain poor lady had wealthy friends stop by for tea and they began to brag about their jewels, this lady called her children to come into the room. She told her friends that her children were her jewels." this story mad me see our family through more appreciative eyes. My Mother was a poor lady and I was one of her many jewels.

With each new addition to the family, Dad worked harder to see we never knew the poverty he had known as a child. he taught us to be honest, accept responsibilities, and that families should stick together and help each other.

Among the letters Mom saved was one Dad had written when about the age of ten to his mother Mabel. He was living in Fielding, Utah wit his father and brothers. (We have his school picture taken wit his class mated in Fielding that year, the only school photo we can find,) Minor took his sons out of school to go work the fields when ever he could find a job he and his boys could do together. I the letter lee tells his mother to be sure and write to the other boys and Minor before she wrote to him again as his father would say bad things about her is she didn't