April 2, 2025

 It is Kona’s 3rd Birthday today. She was four months old when she came to me. She has been a companion and a help to me during the most difficult time of my life. Her name, in Hawaiian, means “Lady” and  “safe harbour”. She is a lady and she has provided me with a safe harbour. She has kept me moving and she has not allowed me to be still for very long or to feel sorry for myself.

I have Jeff with me this week. He had to leave Wagner Hills because he was smoking and he has been at another facility which he didn’t like and he left. Cindy and Paul picked him up from a hotel in Abbotsford on Sunday and I have had him here ever since. He is trying to get back into Wagner Hills again but it will be at least be two more weeks. Jennifer is driving down from Kamloops tomorrow and he will stay with them until he can come back. He would like to upgrade his first aid ticket while he has time or do something like that. He is a sweet boy but has just struggled with these concerns. I pray for him.

I had Miss Sayde last week as she was on spring break and her parents were both working. Keaton is on his school exchange in France and that would have left Sayde alone. We had a quiet but good time. Cindy and Paul drove to Lethbridge to visit Jack and Sam was here on his own. He spent some time with us and he came over to “hang out” with Sayde when  I was in the Temple on Tuesday and Saturday. I tried to get Sayde out for a walk each day. Liza and Brendon drove down last weekend to pick her up.

I did makeup Temple Prep lessons for two YSA students on Sunday and substituted for Sam Moore teaching primary as well. Lahina and I went to visit Sam during spring break when she took some time off to be with her son Weston. I have had my stove oven panel repaired, Kona groomed, attended a Muir dinner in WhiteRock with Cindy, went to Gayleen McLough’s funeral in Burnaby and shopped for new a new car with Jeff. I made dinner for the Hardy family last night as Cindy had a hysterectomy on Monday and just arrived from the hospital yesterday. She is doing well but her shoulder has been in pain as a result of the gas pumped into her during surgery that can lodge in your shoulder. I trained two new LOWs on the Thursday evening shift. It has been a full couple of weeks.

I am blessed.

March 12, 2025

 It is my 75th birthday in a few days. I have no idea how I arrived at this point in my life so quickly. I have had a very blessed life and though I hurt from loss and grief, I have nothing to complain about. I was raised in a wonderful family, with a heritage to be grateful for and proud of. I wisely married a remarkable man who has loved me through life, cared for me and truly raised me up to be more than I could be without him and I adore him.  I have been blessed with wonderful children and grandchildren who continue to both challenge me and bring me joy. I have had outstanding friends and people in my life and opportunities to grow, serve, learn  and experience. I have lived in a beautiful and free land under favourable circumstances. I have had the Savior and His gospel in my life every step of the way. How blessed am I!

Now, I have also had challenges - some big and some small. I pray for abilities to care for my needs, my home and my affairs and I pray for my home and belongings but I have had a few concerns lately. My fridge door spring broke, my garage door spring broke, my oven is not working and I have a flat tire with a nail in it.The garage door is repaired, the Tesla roadside service is coming tomorrow and I am still sorting my fridge and oven problems. I had two lesions removed from my face and that cost a few hundred as it is considered to be cosmetic. Everyday has its challenges and costs.

Our niece Annie is coming for the weekend to attend her daughter Reece’s basketball tournament at UBC. Liza called and is bringing Sayde to stay with me next week as it is spring break and Keaton is going on exchange to France and she and Brendon are busy working. Cindy and Paul are going to Lethbridge to visit Jack and Sam may remain home, so I will have him nearby too.

The challenges in our world continue with Trump trying to bring down Canada with trade wars so he can annex our country - not a joke. We are all scratching our heads as are all free nations of the world. He seems to be connecting himself to Putin and Russia. Liza asked me why the church leaders are not hoisting the Title of Liberty and rallying us to fight. As I drove to the YSA building on Sunday to teach my last Temple Prep Lesson, I passed by the Temple and looked up at Moroni. He is not the first Captain Moroni in the Book of Mormon who hoisted the Title of Liberty, but he is the second, also a warrior and great leader but known best as the final contributor to the gold plates and the one that protected them with his life for decades before burying them and then finally turning them over to Joseph for translation. A banner has been in fact been raised up as the Book of Mormon goes forth and Temples are spreading throughout the world providing insight and ordinances that teach us of Him and His great atoning love. My mother always said that love is the solution to all problems and the Savior is the personification of love. He is the Standard of Liberty, the Standard of Truth, the Standard of Freedom and Right, the Standard of Love. The Standard has been raised up in these days and He was raised up long ago. We need to look to Him and rally to the Standard of Righteousness and Love. He is the solution.

“Be still, and know that I am God.” (Mom’s favourite)

February 27, 2025

 I am up at Liza’s writing this. They are all at work or school and Kona and I are here alone trying to get things done. I cleaned and packed on Monday and Cindy drove us to the airport for an evening flight to Kelowna. Liza met me at the airport. I love my children and I am always grateful that they get me where I need to be and are there to gather me up when I arrive.  Kona managed not too badly. Flying is not her favorite but she gets the routine now. It is about her fifth flight. I am home during the day here and I try to get things done for them, walk the dog and work at my own things. President Leavitt called on Tuesday to see if I wanted a helicopter ride up here to attend Ron Burnham’s funeral. I had forgotten about the funeral but I am already here and the Rempels have kindly offered to drive me to Vernon. I had not anticipated being here for Sunday so I did not bring a dress. I ordered a skirt, tights and ankle boots from Amazon. You do what you have to do. They are suppose to arrive today. I am here for Sayde’s play on Saturday. I also do some driving for Sayde, to classes and home from doctor’s etc. I had thought Brendon and Keaton were driving home with me on Saturday but the return to Vancouver options are still up in the air at the moment.

This is my list of doings during the week prior to my Kelowna trip. I have still been teaching the YSA Temple Prep classes. I have one more class with this group, ,provided I get home for this upcoming Sunday lesson. I helped with the sealing of Gail and Ken Bunnage last week and it was special as they served with us in the Temple and I consider them dear friends. I also helped with a live endowment on Saturday. The Temple is now closed for a two week maintenance. I have been renewing my Nexus and driver’s license. Both were needing renewal before my birthday. Cindy helped me drive Wendy MacKinley to the Surrey Memorial hospital last Thursday, where she receives her kidney dialysis treatment three times a week. Mary Harvey is waiting to start her chemotherapy treatments. So much going on with my friends. The Chinese families brought some food to put in Jean’s home before her arrival back. I let them in. I got the dog bathed, my haircut and flowers ordered and picked up for Jean. She finally got home Saturday afternoon and had some of us for lunch Sunday to help share a meal with the food she had received. I am glad she is finally home. 

I am hoping my ordered clothes work for my needs as I attend the funeral.  I hope I find my way to Sayde’s after school activity and I hope we settle on a safe option for our trip back to Vancouver this weekend. I hope the world came establish peace and maintain a spirit of kindness for one another. Mom always said LOVE is the solution for everything and it is!! 

February 14, 2025

 Happy Valentine’s Day! I love my loves here on earth and I love my heavenly Valentine. Oh, how I miss him but I am sincerely and deeply grateful that he is still mine and I am still his.

The world is in turmoil with the election of Donald Trump. He has the Canadians in an uproar with the threat of 25% tariffs and then seriously suggesting we become the 51st state. He wants to take over Greenland, the Panama and Gaza, removing Palestinians and building a resort area. Leaders around the world are speaking up and Canadians are rallying in pride of country. We are buying Canadian products and cancelling holidays to the USA. We have been their best neighbors, biggest trading partners and their largest numbers of tourists. We have fought wars with them, opened our doors to them in times of need such as 911 and been there for them when wildfires have threatened their safety. I feel badly that many Americans don’t know us as a country or understand the relationship we have had with them. We are quiet and often unpretentious and many Americans have not thought much of us or thought about us at all. We are significant and we are of value. I feel that Trump has made a plan to create initial unrest and destabilize the world to get our attention. I hope we can act with dignity, think with clarity and feel compassion for one another. I am grateful that we have a King of Kings, who has his eye on all of us and who will come again and who will reign in righteous. In this there is safety and peace in a world where there seems to be neither peace nor safety. 

We have snow and though roads have been cleared, I have stayed home a little more and got a few things done that have needed doing. I have cleaned and worked on my business affairs trying to get and keep things in order. I have taught the first Temple Prep class for the YSA. Sam is in my class. We had a special, unscheduled Stake Conference and Elder Wanda was our visiting General Authority. I have gone to the Hardy’s to celebrate Paul’s birthday and I am trying to plan a March visit to Kelowna and a later spring visit to Nashville. Trevor and Tammie are just moving into their new home. I sent Zach’s money to him and they were able to purchase their first home. Jean will be home the end of the month and I let Kirk into her garage to get her car running. I need to get other things prepared before her return as well.

Despite the turmoil outside, I do feel peace and confidence that all will be well.❤️❤️🇨🇦

January 31, 2025

Somehow January has flown by and the last two weeks have been full of activities. I will briefly go over what has transpired and then I want to fulfill a commitment I made to the Sister Missionaries in writing my testimony down. This is something I don’t think I have ever done before.

I was asked to speak at the YSA Branch on January 19 on the subject of Temple Preparation as we are starting a new group of students in the Temple Preparation course. Cindy came to support me which was very kind. 

Lahina Cy agreed to visit Emily Leavitt for a ministering visit with me. Lahina is very sweet and sincerely seemed to enjoy the opportunity to serve. She is anxious to do more. 

Jonny and Jennifer came out to spend Jeff’s birthday last weekend with him and all three of them came to stay with me. Jenn’s friend Kristin joined them in their activities and Jeff said it was the best birthday he has ever had. I am so glad. Jenn and Jonny left Sunday morning and Jeff came to church with us before Cindy drove him back to Wagner Hills. He is doing well.

Last week we had Hula practice Wednesday evening, dress rehearsal Friday evening for the Stake Variety Show and the actual performance Saturday evening. People seemed to enjoy seeing Sister Walker dance. I did it out of love for my dear friend Bela and I hope Tom was happy too. That may be my last dancing performance.

 I taught the first YSA Temple Preparation class last Sunday and had fourteen students attend. That is my largest class thus far. I love teaching, I love the young adults and I love the Temple.

I have been busy getting things done at home this week and had the Sister Missionaries for dinner last night. I had the Hardys the week before and bought them A+W when they came to take my outdoor Christmas lights down.

I was able to get Zachary’s money transferred to him successfully. These allocations of money to each of the grandchildren was something Tom wanted to do and we were able to do it for Justin, Max and Ross before Tom’s passing. This was my first attempt on my own. I also picked our safety deposit box items up from the bank they had sent them to and brought things to my local branch, which makes more sense. I am trying to handle finances and everything else Tom would have taken care of  or which we would have done together, wisely and well. Stretching on all levels has been the name of the game for me. 

As usual, it has been a busy couple of weeks and busy is actually good for me. I also try to phone or contact friends who are sick or struggling and I took Mary and Lincoln some dinner. I am trying to be of benefit to some, in some way. I pray, pray, pray  for my family and others too and sometimes that is all I can do.

Let me now share my testimony. I do not believe that I have ever written my testimony down and whether writing or speaking I feel my words are very inadequate on this topic.  I have had a testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ and the Gospel of Jesus Christ since I was a little girl. I seemed to have a believing heart. I knew that the baby featured in our cardboard Nativity set was in fact the Christ child and someone very special. I knew that Jesus in the Bible stories my mother read to us had lived and fulfilled an important role for all mankind. That love for and belief Him made me feel certain in the truthfulness of His Gospel. These experiences, coupled with the faithfulness of my mother, my grandparents and other family and friends, gave me an assurance that my feelings and beliefs were on solid ground. As I attended seminary, read my scriptures and learned from others in various settings, my understanding for the feelings I already had became more evident. There were definitely times when the spirit bore witness to me of the truthfulness of it all but mostly my feelings could be described as confidence and bedrock peace. With Tom’s passing I have felt the greatest grief my heart has ever experienced but I have also felt the most overwhelming constant peace that I have ever experienced. I believe the confidence and peace I have experienced at this time and throughout my life is a witness of the Holy Ghost. I believe that is my love language with the Lord. Through that personalized witness just for me, I can say that I know the Savior lives and loves me and that he atoned for me and all mankind. I know the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored in preparation for His return and the principles taught and the covenants and ordinances contained within it, come from the Savior and provide us a way to safely navigate this life and find our way back to Him and His Heavenly Home. I know that the Book of Mormon truly witnesses of the Savior and His gospel and it was given by Him, through the efforts of his faithful servants, to help us come unto Him. I know that Joseph Smith struggled to initiate the restoration and bring the Book of Mormon forth and that he was a prophet of God. I know that with the restoration we once more have prophets in the land and we have men and women giving their lives to bring forth the purposes of God. These are the things I know and I know them because the spirit has witnessed them to my heart and I have been blessed but confidence and great peace. These things I know.

January 17, 2025

 December and Christmas were busy times with Jennifer and Nora coming for the Taylor Swift concert, then Trevor’s visit before I left for Montana and my Bull family Christmas. I arrived home about an hour before the Burgess family arrived for New Years and Annika to visit Jack. I loved it all and being with all of them. The Burgess family left the day before Joanne, Jeff and the McCues arrived. Annika overlapped a day with them. Jenn and family stayed at her friends and Joanne and Jeff stayed here with me on the weekend. They busied themselves with some family activities while I did my Temple shift and such. I fed them soup on the day they arrived. We took Jeff back to Wagner Hills after church on Sunday and the McCues got Spenser off to school at UofVictoria and headed home. Joanne spent the next week with me.

I wasn’t sure what Joanne’s plans were when she came but it was nice t have her here for the week. She was having a little break from her caregiver responsibilities with Dave and had wanted to see Jeff. I think she feels good after having seen Wagner Hills and Jeff himself. I think he is doing well and we all really like Wagner Hills and feel it is a good place for him to be. Joanne helped me get my Christmas decorations down and put them away, including carrying the Christmas tree to the garage, intact to store it there. I am sure we looked like an old lady gong show. We went to the Temple and she took me out for lunch afterward. She came with Kona and I on our long walks each day and we went to Fort Langley where I had a meeting concerning the cemetery with some township personal and Mike from the church next door regarding improving the border landscaping between our properties. Virginia came to the meeting too. Joanne and I went shopping in Fort Langley afterwards and she took me for High Tea at the Little White House. We each bought a skirt there. I cleaned my house and had to go for a Hula practice while she was here. I drove her to the Abbotsford airport on Friday and Brooke picked her up in Calgary. It was a nice week. I think she enjoyed it.

We had our Ministering Sisters’ Conference on Sunday afternoon. I had organized a program and made the assignments and the presidency carried the plans out. I had been considering my talk “Anchored to The Rock” for weeks but only sat down to put it together after Joanne left. The rest spoke on being tethered to each other. The event was entitled “Anchored to The Rock and Tethered to Each Other”. I think it went well. I have been working this week to prepare a talk to give at the YSA Branch on Sunday. It is entitled “Preparing for Entering the Temple”. We will be starting Temple Prep classes at the YSA on January 26.

There are so many concerns my friends and others are having. Mary Harvey had surgery last week with cancerous lymph nodes being removed. I took them some soup on Wednesday. Wendy McKinley is in hospital with RSV and renal failure after her cruise to the Panama. Two young women in our ward and Brookswood have breast cancer. Amanda Desjardins has fluid build up in her brain and Ron Burnham passed away today. Our children and grandchildren have their struggles with anxiety and depression. My prayer lists are long.

We are practicing for our Hula dance to be performed at the Stake talent show on January 25.  Only for Bela would I do this.

My house is back together and cleaned after Christmas and all my company. Jenn and Nora will return next week for Jeff’s birthday. Life goes on with all its busyness, joys, trials and sorrows. All part of the plan.

January 3, 2025

 Christmas and New Years have come and gone with lots of family, activities, meals and a trip to and from White Fish Montana with Kona as my sidekick.

I was grateful for Trevor’s visit before Christmas making it possible for me to spend time with all my children during this holiday season. 

Brendon started getting ill around the 18th of December with colitis like symptoms. He went to the doctor and did end up in hospital emergency one night with some testing done and further testing scheduled. They gave him medication to reduce inflammation of the bowels. He managed to finish work before the holidays began but then spent the time coping and finally by New Years feeling somewhat better. He discovered that his Aunt Cathy has dealt with the disease for years. It does run in families.

I had been prepping for days in advance getting my clothes, baking done here and house in order before  I left on my trip to White Fish. Cindy drove Kona and I out to the airport on Monday, December 23. Things were quiet that evening at the airport and all went well. When we got to Seattle we had to rush to change terminals and I was exhausted by the time we got to the gate for Kalispell. We sat on the plane a long time before leaving and that made us late arriving, around midnight. Rissa was there to pick me up and I was glad to see her. I had cleaned much of my house that day and the trip and airport run and kicked in, so bed was welcome. I felt much better the next day and made orange rolls while they delivered gifts. We went up the mountain that evening to see Santa and his entourage ski down with torches and then Santa gave the children gifts in the lodge. We celebrated Christmas the next day with gifts and Christmas breakfast and then up the mountain for lunch and a lovely gathering and Christmas meal at Chris and Courtney’s in the evening. I had a nice visit with Nora, Courtney’s Nana and met Chris’s parents Pat and Libby. They had other families there as well. Chris and Courtney live in a large log cabin home. Through the week we shopped in downtown Whitefish and Columbia Falls. We went out to eat a couple more times, watched Christmas movies and worked  on a very difficult puzzle. I am sure Tom was having a good laugh. We went to church on Sunday and the  next day I cleaned up the guest house  and packed up. Kona enjoyed cousin Otis and the Bull family and generally did very well. Rissa got us back out to the airport and we had a good trip home but with another delay in Seattle and late arrival. Cindy and Paul were there ready to get us home. 

Jack’s girlfriend Annika Orr had dropped her things off earlier at my place and just as she and Jack arrived, the Burgess family walked in surprising me. I was so excited to see them. I was not sure if Brendon would be well enough to make the trip and it was a treat to have them arrive unexpectedly. Breya and Keaton helped me get groceries the next day and helped me cook for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. We all came together for New Year’s treats and games and got to bed late - at least for me. The kids went for a hike on New Year’s Day and Brendon for a swim and then everyone came over for New Year’s Day dinner, more games and a movie. Tired. I think everyone is tired. Little Aksel has not gotten over his cold the whole time he has been here. 

Max, Jacqui and Aksel left for Australia the evening of the second and the Burgess family left for home earlier that day and arrived safely with Brendon driving. Joanne is arriving later today to visit Jeff and he may be staying here too. The Hardy family went to the Temple today to do baptisms and Jack and Annika leave for Lethbridge tomorrow. Revolving door here at the moment but I have been getting beds changed and bathrooms cleaned and will make dinner for Joanne and not sure who else, this evening.

Above all the movement from place to place and numerous activities, there stands the Reason for the Season, Jesus Christ. I love Him, I appreciate Him and I aspire to be like Him. I have missed Tom all along the way but do feel him near.❤️❤️