Remarkably my days seem to fill up with things that need to get done. I went to the accountant this morning to drop of some paperwork that I have been needing to get to him and then I went to check on the grave and water the sunflower plant. I went to the Temple yesterday morning and then did some banking in the afternoon. Ryan came over yesterday too and picked up his check for the landscaping. I cleaned on Monday and then went with Cindy, Paul, and Sam to Stoneworks in Surrey to pick out a headstone for Tom. I want something that is simple and dignified and I think we are on the right path. It will take several months to get the stone and have it engraved. I went home after that and made dinner for Jacqui who just arrived from Australia for the week and for the Hardy family. They went right from Stoneworks to the airport to pick her up. I drove Jean and Cheyenne to church on Sunday as it was my turn. Joanne and Dave arrived on Friday on their way home from visiting Jeff in Kimberley and they stayed the night. After they left on Saturday, I worked my Saturday afternoon shift at the Temple and helped with a living endowment again. I picked up fruit on Friday at Dreidigers and delivered it to the Bigler, Barroby and Lai Families. Everyone was home. I also got some groceries for Joanne and Dave coming. I went to the cemetery a couple of times, turned Tom’s driver’s license in to ICBC, did banking and some shopping. Full week.
When my life is in disarray, I quickly start to try to create order because that provides me with peace and the yard being complete, beautiful and paid for makes me happy and gives me that calm. I am slowly sorting out my banking and the paying of bills to make things as simple as possible but I have a way to go with that. I will get there. When I feel I have order and my heart is ready, then I can try to determine what my future path will look like and what the Lord wants me to do - mission or not, family responsibilities, dog or not. How can I have a meaningful life, help others and have the Lord, Tom and myself happy? It definitely will include improving the Fort Langley Historic Cemetery.
I feel Tom near and I am hoping that never changes. I love the Temple as it testifies and teaches of the Savior and his Atonement. It provides a path and shows his footprints throughout. The Vancouver Temple also has bits of Tom throughout it. I try to park near the back of the Temple and come through the back gate so I can pass by the thick ivy that spills over the planters. Tom and I planted those little ivy starts together years ago and now I can be welcomed to the Temple grounds by that beautiful ivy entrance. On the one mural wall in the first ordinance room there is depicted a family of deer - four females, followed by a male buck. It reminded me of our family when the children were younger and strewn out following Tom and me bringing up the rear with Trevor circling around to check on me. I wondered when I first saw it where Tom was but, as I turned around, I spied him up on a nearby hill enjoying the vista and scouting a path for us to take. In the second ordinance room are six chandeliers that we had lowered as the should have always been. Realizing that each individually hung crystal on them needed to be cleaned, we organized a group to assist with that endeavour during one closure. We had scaffolding and a cherry picker set up and Tom was up on there rapidly removing crystals with his little dental hands and then along with others rehanging each washed and polished crystal. He carried a spare crystal with him to various conferences for awhile to teach the members that the Lord loves and helps us one by one. At the time of the Temple dedication the gold leafing on the ceiling of the Celestial room had not been completed. We were involved with that during our first closure while serving with the Komms. We were the couple on duty when the scaffolding was set up and the gold leafing completed. One day they invited Tom and I up to do a little gold leafing. I did some straight lines but not Tom, they allowed him to do flowers - dogwood flowers. It was again those skilled dental hands at work. Now when I go into the Celestial room and I look up I see he has left me flowers. In Tom’s effort to Follow Him, he has left his own handprints all over the Temple to comfort me and the Lord has allowed those handprints to be left and loved by me.
This past Saturday I assisted Del-Anne Miles as she receive her endowment. Her escort was her sister-in-law Leslee Zuskind. They had been in the Vancouver Stake and Tom loved and appreciated them. Her husband Dave had made, on two different occasions, collages of Tom and I at the Temple groundbreaking and one other time during the Temple’s history. She wanted to tell me of some encouraging words Tom had once given her and tell about her attendance at Tom’s service and how it had touched her. I was able to tell her Tom loved their family and I think she needed to hear that. The week before I helped a young widow who was being endowed and then sealed to her deceased husband. Toward the end I noted that her birthday was on our 4th wedding anniversary and I told her Tom had just passed away. She said she thought we were suppose to be together that day and I agreed. Later on as I pondered it I wondered if Tom had been assisting her husband on the other side of the veil as he received his proxy endowment that day and was sealed to his precious wife. I think perhaps he was. I was not suppose to help with either of those living ordinance sisters but things worked out so I could and I did and somehow I felt Tom was involved too and letting me know he was close by.
I am blessed with the Savior’s love, the gospel in my life, the Temple, my loving family, kind friends and a wonderful husband who is serving yet another mission but is never far away.
No comments:
Post a Comment