No Swimming

Sorry, we are calling off the swimming party, now you are going to have to sail in on your yacht or maybe an air carrier. Being that we are scheduled to get dumped on again tonight, maybe it ought to be a submarine. We had winds in some areas of the Valley up to 100 miles per hour and over 2" of rain. The power has been off in some areas of the Valley all night and all day, lots of power poles blown down. Trees down everywhere and many roads closed. I have never seen or heard so much lighting and thunder, it just never stopped. The weather people said we got thousands of hits every minute. It sounded just like a jet plane was just sitting right on top of my house, reving his jets! The Valley really gets hit with violent monsom rain and storms some years and this just happens to be one of them.
I'm planning to go to a Tail-gating Birthday party tonight, hope I don't drown. I may have to take my floaties!!

Rain

Anyone want to come swimming? The pool is back in my back yard. Of course you do have to watch out for the rocks but thats a small hitch. It has rained for the last 2 nights and looks like we are going to get more to day. Monday night I was over to Jordan and Bett's house, playing dominos and going out to eat, and I got home and in the house just as it started to rain. It came down in buckets for about 2 hours. I was glad I made it home before it rained because they had to close parts of the freeway and other roads again. What fun! I used to really like it when it rained, but now it just makes me blue and lonely. Oh well, this too will pass.

Footprints

Last time I was in Holbrook Christine got a Serority magazine. I leafed through it and saw they had a Poetry contest winners poems listed. One of them named Footprints got me to thinking about my footprints. The part that really impressed me is:
"Have I touched anyone's life
In a way they'll recall,
Has my being here
Really mattered at all."
I started wondering how my children will react when I go, and I decieded that they would all sit around and laugh about what a goofball their mother was. How many weird manerisms I have, and they would have a really good giggle. Christine is of the opinion that her girls will all get to gather and dance around her grave and sing "Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead". I don't think either one of us gets much respect from our children, maybe it's because they know us too well. I know this really is a morbid thing to think about but for some reason death has been with me for quite a while, wonder why???

No more wild parties

Well, it looks like I'm going to have to renige on all those party invites I sent to you all. There will be no more wild parties at my place, they just made my next door neighbor our new Bishop. I am so tickled, he is really a fine man and I know he will do the Lord's work with a steadfast heart and a strong testimony. His wife is my Visiting Teaching partner as well as a really good friend. so now I'm sure we will be church buddies for at least the next 5 years.
I am sorry to see Bishop Mullenaux removed but he and his sweet wife are putting in their papers to go on a mission and I know they will do great work there. He sure helped me through some tough times when Bill died and even before then, when he was so sick. I could always count on Bp. Mullenaux to be there if we needed him. However when Bill died the first one there was Ron Reed, my next door neighbor. The Reeds have been really good to me, and always see to it that I am never left out of anything.
The second counselor is a young man from Holbrook area, Barry Turley. So it is kinda nice to have one of the old hometown guys in there too.
I'm sorry if this ruins all your plans about coming to any wild parties but it can't be helped. You'll just have to wait 5 years or so!

Service for Van

Yesterday I went to the service for Van, my brother-in-law. It was so hard to be there, it was almost like having Bill's service all over again. A lot of the same people were there and they even sang one of the same hymns. Van was a really good gentle man and he and Bill were almost as close as Christine and I are. I know he had a really rough time of it after Bill died, Bill was his baby brother, and I know how that feels.
The services were held in the chapel at the mausoleum which was at 27th Ave. and Van Buren St., forever away from here. I had forgotten what a seedy part of town it is, I really got nervous driving through some of that area trying to get back to 19th Ave. to the freeway. The cemetery is surrounded by freeways now and hard to get to. It's an old cemetery and used to be in a nice part of town. Bill's parents, Brother Cliff, and his wife Thelma, and Carrie are all buried there. So I have been there several times but this was the first time I had driven ther by my self and it just seemed different.
One of Van's daughter-in-law's introduced me to some friends of theirs as Van's last remaining LIVING sisters-in-law. That was a startling thought. It really shook me up for a minute. I guess that means that June and I are the last of the old Beck family. Now how did that happen!?! It's funny how aging creeps up on a soul, you don't even realize it and suddenly there you are OLD. Strange!

Van died.

My last remaining Brother in Law on Bill's side of the family died early this morning. Oh, how I am going to miss him. He was the last of the older generation of Becks. That means that Mike, Tonie, Victor, and Kimberly are now the older generation of Becks. The oldest living Beck is now Stanley and he's not that much older than I am. Scary! Van was a wonderful guy, a great husband and father, grandfather, uncle, brother, brother-in-law, and friend. He was 99 years old and would have turned 100 in Jan. so most of his friends and all of his brothers were already gone. But those of us who knew and love him will surely miss him. It's especially hard haveing him go so soon after Bill, which is a constant pain and emptiness. But I am so happy that they will be together again. Van's first wife died many years ago, so I know that he is glad to be with her again too. I just pray for his sweet wife, June, remaining here. May God bless and comfort her at this time and always, and may she know how much she is loved by those of us that know her. Dear Brother Van, I am going to miss you so.