Henry Ford Hatch

                                                      Henry Ford

     Henry Ford was our four wheel drive Ford truck. Travis was just a little tyke when Curtis bought this family truck and Travis was the one who named this green truck "Henry Ford Hatch".  The name stuck! And Henry took our little family on many adventures, including one we almost didn't make it back from....a bear hunting trip up into the wilds of Idaho.  We did see three bears...a mom and baby and another medium size bear...but thankfully for me, none that we wanted to shoot. The bears weren't the problem for our scary trip though. "Twas a combination of snow, trails instead of road, and a fire incident that frightened me more than coming face to face with the bear would have! Luckily we made it out safe and sound. (you'd have to have been there to realize the story I didn't tell here!)

      Henry took us to Yellowstone on another adventure. This was in July of 1987, when we had a exchange student from Spain, Alexandra Turcot, staying with us. Curtis was in so much pain from his leg ...(he kept saying it was just a pulled muscle) that we cut our vacation short in order to get him home to get some medical help (that he didn't want).

       A couple of weeks later, on my birthday Aug 14,  I had loaded Henry up with 12 scouts (including my son Travis and nephew Shane Clawson) and gone up to Camp Kiesel for the day.  When I got home and was dropping Shane off, Patty was in tears (Curts sister) she said "I'm so sorry about Curt" I still didn't know what was going on.  While I'd been gone they'd got the results back from the tests we'd made Curt do. The pain in his leg was cancer that had spread to the bone. We went back the next day for more tests, which we got the results on Aug 22, Curts birthday.

       No wonder he was hurting so bad. Stage 4.  The Dr said less than 16 per cent chance of survial, and maybe two months without chemo.  Because it hurt to sit, Curtis would get in the back of Henry (we had put a mattress back there for the Yellowstone trip...it was still there...made traveling with lots of kids more comfortable! And it worked better for Curt too.  Going down and coming home. 

        One day Curt wanted to go check out a deer that he had heard was out by the cemetary in Corinne. He took nine year old Katie with him.  They got out there just fine. I'm not sure if they saw the four point or not.  This was in the days before cell phones. Curt couldn't get back to the truck by himself.  Katie helped him get there and then they had a word of prayer before trying to get home.  Curt told Katie not to stop praying till they were safe in the driveway back at home.  When he saw how scared she was he joked "good thing Henry is so well trained and knows the way home!"  He knew that he was in no shape to drive at all.  When they got home he said "we got here on a wing and a prayer."

       Henry got hit by a school bus down in Moroni and retired a few years later.  He was a much loved part of our family!  (no offense to our car Betsey...she was well loved too!)

Henry Ford (the truck) and Betsey (the car) in background

Jared, Travis, Katie, Curt, Me and Camille       

The Ups and Downs

                                       

                                                    The Ups and Downs

  

     A long time ago I went to a fireside where Blaine Yorgansen was speaking. He told a story about bad day in his sisters life.  At the time I had a house full of little ones and this story had me laughing so hard! Her bad day just continuely got worse as the day went on. One Big disaster to the next. He had wrote a story something like "The terrible, real bad, rotten, horrible day" (It's been so long ago that I don't remember exactly what it was just the gist of it) I had had days like that and could so identify!  He mentioned the only way to deal with a day like that is to see the humor and laugh...or the tears will start to roll and have a hard time stopping.

     I've laughed through lots of difficult times, but I realized that there are times when you can't just laugh it away.  Some challenges require instant attention, grabbing the bull by the horns and getting it handled.  Some require patience and lots of time. Some just don't have a solution and you have to live with them...and some you can ignore and hope they go away ...and if they don't put them off to deal with later when you are better prepared. (note: bills are not on the put off till later category!) 

     One of my difficult days started out at seven a.m. with a call from a friend.  We had just saw her and her husband two weeks before at the Mormon Miracle Pageant. They had come over to my parents in Moroni after it was over and we ate late, a delicous dutch oven dinner. Her husband showed us a piece of gold that he had mined from his gold mine. On this morning she had called to tell me that he had been murdered.  Mom called next and we talked about ordering some flowers for the funeral. My next call was to tell me my neighbor Ann Barker had died from cancer. The next three calls were concerning flowers for her funeral. The day continued and the same note with two other phone calls dealing with a relative or friends death. It was over whelming.  Then at six p.m. my Grandma Johnson pulls into my driveway.  I ran out so excited to see her and gave her a big hug.  Then I heard the phone ringing and I said to Grandma "I don't want to answer that, every time it's rang today it's been someone that I know and love has died or about getting flowers for their funerals"  She said "I'll get it for you honey"  so I let her.  It was my mom calling to say my Grandpa Christensen had just died.  It wasn't a laughing sort of day...I had been totally wiped out emotionally...then my little Katie and Travis said "Can we show Gt-Grandma our hat dance?"  and the whole bad day turned around.  My heart was still heavy and sad but I realized how important it was to continue living, loving and smiling. How I appreciated my little ones cheering me up and entertaining us.  We went on to have a very enjoyable evening.

       The challenges of having a houseful of little ones are pretty much challenges of the past for me now.  I look back and remember those "good ole days" so fondly.  And try to fill the house with grandchildren. I love stirring up a batch of cookies for the grandchildren or playing games with them or listening to a song they are working on or hearing a poem or story they have written, hearing about what is happening in their lives, ect.

         As I look back, or as I reflect on daily events, I realize that every age and every stage has it's own set of ups and downs.  I love where I am at...and I have loved where I've been.  It does my heart good to reflect back on events that have happened...the good and the bad...as they all add up to a sum of who and what I am now.