Monday, July 4, 2011

CANADA OH CANADA!

I have just returned from a most wonderful trip to Canada! I don't know about you, but I have the greatest family - not only immediate, but also extended. This past week I have learned more about my heritage than I ever thought possible. And so I don't forget my favorites I must record them.
1. Great Grandma Pheobe loved poetry and songs. She would recite throughout the day as she worked. She learned them from her father as they walked a mile to church on Sunday mornings for Bishipric meetings.
2. Great Grandma Pheobe was both gentle and sweet. She never thought poorly about anyone.
3. Great Grandpa Rulon understood how to treat people. He would empty out houses for people on the way to work on the farm. He brought his nieces and nephews into his home and took care of them.
4. Great great grandpa Dahl would take people bags of flour during the great depression and everyone had almost nothing.
5. Great Grandpa Rulon and Great Grandma Pheobe never argued in front of their children. My Grandpa Jack never heard his dad raise his voice to his mom.
6. Great Grandpa Rulon and Great Grandma Pheobe had Japanese and Indians living on their farm during a time of great racism.
7. Great Grandpa Rulon and Great Grandma Pheobe create a home that everyone was welcome into. It was a home that all their children loved growing up in.
8. Great Grandma Pheobe never walked, always ran.
9. Great Grandma Pheobe always had the smell of rolls baking in the oven.
10. Great Grandma Pheobe once said (when she ask what she was doing), "I'm taking rolls to the old people in the ward." Funny things was...she was older than all of them.
11. Great Grandma Pheobe taught in her own way, but she taught that we need to dream, there will be trials, and we can't be naive.

There is so much more, but they have escaped my memory for the moment. As they come I will continue with other posts.

On to my Grandpa Jack and his siblings. I saw them together and they were so happy. I could just imagine them many years ago all living in the old house in Raymond behaving the same way they did all weekend. So excited to be together and never wanting the time to end. There is so much love they have for each other. And so much to learn from them. They understand the importance of family and how it is an eternal unit. I got to hear stories about each of them...Uncle Larry burning down the barn and learning about the atonement. Aunt Bonnie going on a date with a boy and then telling him she couldn't go out with him again until he changed a few things and went to church! Aunt Carol and how although she was the youngest she wouldn't be told what to do. Aunt Marie and how loving and caring she was. And then my Grandpa - a person that always recognized the influence of God in his life. These people have lived a long life, they have had many experiences and know what is most valuable - the gospel of Jesus Christ and their family (and not just their kids and grandkids, but all of us that run from the Rulon and Pheobe line and those that marry into it). I might be a Dahl and someone else might be a Baker, but we are family. There is a connection there that I haven't found else where. I am so very grateful to be a part of it.

2 comments:

Jodi said...

Awesome post Tessa! I was just sitting down to post my reunion memories and was thinking the exact same thing - we may not have the same last name...but we are family! Loved visiting with you and seeing everyone!

Carlye said...

Fantastic Journal Entry! I love this blog stuff. Once on the net forever on the net! History will be full of stories!
Thanks Tessa