We were finally able to make arrangements with our friend Debra Moore, who the children had commissioned to take our anniversary pictures. We set Wednesday morning as the date and Derby Reach Historical site by the river in Fort Langley as the location. We got up early that morning and found it to be be a very foggy day but I was actually thrilled because I think fog adds an interesting dimension to photographs and bright sunny days can prove to be difficult when taking pictures.. We had a fun time with Debra and hope she was able to make something of these old people. She hasn’t sent the finished “shoot” to us as yet.
We celebrated Thanksgiving this weekend and, because our children have been going to school and some back at work, Cindy felt we shouldn’t all be getting together because of virus concerns. We determined if we were not going to have dinner with our family, we would take our meal to people who needed a Thanksgiving dinner. We phoned Gene and Marie next door as Gene is suffering from cancer. She had a turkey and was going to make their own meal. We phoned Cheyenne across the street who is home alone with her father Wayne while her mother Jean and sister Charmaine are in Austria getting Charmaine settled in a fine arts college. We just told them we were bringing them dinner because we know they need help. We took the sacrament to Carol Jones on Sunday and discovered that her husband would be in Saskatoon for Thanksgiving and the remainder of the winter and so we told her we would bring her dinner too. We started baking and preparing our regular Thanksgiving meal throughout the week - carrot cake, layered salad, stuffing, rolls, yams, mashed potatoes/gravy, brussel sprouts/carrots/bacon and turkey. Our table seemed empty with just the two of us but we hoped that our food helped some others. We have lots of leftovers and will get some cake to Cindy’s family.
We were very thankful on Thanksgiving Day to receive news that Jean and Charmaine were able to obtain Charmaine’s visa clearance in Austria, as we had been trying to help do it from this end and were running into difficulties. We were saddened though to receive news, that same day, that our good friend Ross Slarks had passed away. He had cancer and had been suffering these past years with multiple complications resulting from the initial surgery. We are grateful his pain is no more but sorrowing for Shirlene and her family. Ross and Shirlene were teenage sweethearts and were always joined at the hip. They are about ten years older than us but they and their family have been part of our lives since we were teenagers ourselves. Ross was Tom’s councillor in the bishopric when Tom was a young Bishop. I had babysat their children and Nancy, their daughter, babysat our children. We had holidayed with them and joyed and sorrowed with them thru the years.
Our sister in law Jeannette called this week and expressed concern for Tom’s sister Carolyn, who is going thru a difficult divorce. Tom called Carolyn and learned that she is still struggling to achieve a settlement with her husband, who is also a Tom. He is extremely successful but states that his money is all tied up and that there is nothing for Carolyn. Our hearts are breaking and we have determined to not only pray for Carolyn but for Tom, that his heart will be softened. He is a lawyer and never wants to feel he has lost a case even against his own wife. They had ten children together, with nine living.
I have been sorting thru more family pictures again this week and proof reading the “StoryWorth” histories of ourselves that the children are having us write. It has been a good project for us to work on durning this time.
We are always working on the music for the ward meetings and we also met with Dave Leavitt, via zoom today, to get going on the ward Christmas Musical that we are in charge of this year. We will have to follow the covid parameters and probably have 2-3 performances, with one being zoomed into homes. This is something we have never done before but we will pray for help and success.
We have done more yard work this week and got our growing dogwood tree in the backyard trimmed in preparation for fall and winter. We are also trying to prepare for Hallowe’en and determine what that will look like this year. Everything is new or at least different at this unique time.
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