Letter to the Family

This week, we have several birthdays. David's was on Sunday, AnnMarie and A.J. will celebrate on Tuesday and little Jens will be age two on Friday. Hopefully, everyone has money inside their envelopes. ;) I had Gramps look while I was putting the money inside so, if there is a mistake, it took two of us to make it.

I remember the excitement we felt as we wecomed each new addition to our family. What joy we knew then and that joy has just grown over the years.

Auntie Helen is healing well. Her knee is nearly better and she will be able to have Nanci go home. Nanci has been so good to stay the entire time that Auntie has needed her. As you know, because she writes, Auntie Eva is still doing as well as she can. She does not have a car anymore but she does have a motorized cart that she can use to get around closeby.

Matthew really injured himself Saturday when he crashed and burned on a friend's motor scooter. He has some bad injuries to his knee and elbow. Auntie AnnMarie is doing her best to help him heal with her nursing/doctoring ability.

The other grandchildren are all doing well. You know that Braden is now in Peru. Siovhan was nominiated for an Emmy. Alyssa is going to be in a musical this summer. Donovin's ball team is doing well. Dane and Kyle are graduating. Kyle and his father get to travel Europe this summer because of the TimpView music department. Each grandchild has achieved in all kinds of activities. We see some of the performances, like Emily's and Tyler's via Facebook postings. We just are so proud. We are proud of our missionary grandsons and the work they are doing to aid their fellow beings.

We have been very, very busy at the temple the past two weeks. Of course, we usually are as the universities are out for the summer. That is a time when all of the young people chose to marry so we are accustomed to that. However, this year has been a bit different. We are getting many young men who are soon to graduate from high school and will be leaving on missions in the next few weeks. I can only imagine what that has been like--getting ready for graduation and getting ready for a mission at the same time. Also, I have been over the specail dressing room, as part of my calling, for the women. We have had a great number of young women, age 19, who are now preparing to leave for missions. Each mission, I am certain, benefit from the willingness of the youth in stepping up to serve.

We have also had big sessions at the temple with women filling the sessions as part of the "Dressed in White" program. That has been most helpful and we hope will continue to bring people to the temple. We have seen many people from our youth and folks that used to live near us in Carbon County and also many who lived in Nephi at one time or another.

Some of us sisters were laughing at a time line that one of the sisters had filled out with her personal feelings. There was a large space between birth and age 20. Then, each decade, the space got smaller between the decade marks. Finally, she had drawn age 70 and several letters "s" and had followed that with age 80 and a large "P" which she then explained. It seems that life streateches out before us with lots of time to accomplish our goals when we are young. Then we hit age 70 and the scared age, when we know time will be short. Then comes age 80 and the panic sets in. We know that we will never get our 30-years worth of repenting done in the time we have left. None of us will be here in another 30 years and, if we are, we may not even know who we are. The upshot is, do not wait for deathbed repentence. Do as you should while you are young.

"As we draw near to God, He will draw near to us. And day by day, the hope of God’s light will grow within us, 'brighter and brighter until the perfect day.'" —Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "The Hope of God's Light"

We wish you well. We are praying for your success and for your happiness. Keep up the good work. We love you.

Jessie and Vivian

When my Grandmother Vivian and her sister, Jessie, were teens, Jessie tied my grandmother to a bedpost and then went downstairs to tell her (Vivian's) date that she was going to be late? Jessie visited with him and visited with him. Grandma couldn't get loose. FINALLY, Jessie went upstairs and let her go. THEN she wondered why Vivian was angry because she was just having fun. It ended up being OK, probably right away, but for certain 40 years later when they were all laughing about it one evening. That's how I heard the story. They did love each other a lot. 

Jessie also had a little teasing streak with her father. They lived in a house next to the girl's gym in Provo. (The building still stands across the street from what was once the BYU Accademy but is now Provo City Library.) The house they lived in is no longer there. Now it is an apartment building. But BYU held dances in the gym. The students were allowed to waltz but they could not fox trot. Grandpa Pritchett liked to watch the dancers from his upstairs bedroom window which faced the girl's gym. Aunt Jessie, knowing he was watching, would take her dance partner over along the edge of the floor so Grandpa P. could see them and do a few steps of the scandalous fox trot just to tease him. After the dance, he would scold her and she would laugh.

Grandmother Smith chose Jessie's name. She said that when Jessie was born, they lived in Sanpete County. Down the street from their home a young woman lived. She had the most beautiful read hair. Her name was Jessie. So when the parents, Mina Ericksen and Frank Pritchett, asked Vivian what she would like her sister to be named, she suggested "Jessie." They honored her request.

The day that Jessie was born, the doctor was sent for and Vivian was sent outside to wait. When the doctor came back out of the house, he told Vivian that she could go back inside and see the baby. "Where did she come from?" Vivian asked. "We found her under a rose bush," the doctor replied. Hmm, well, we all know the truth of that story. Aunt Jessie said, in later years, "Well, after they found me they hung me on a clothesline to dry and I fell off into a mud puddle. That's why I have all these freckles."

We all remember what a quick wit Aunt Jessie had and what fun she was. In all of her snapshots she is laughing. I wish we could hear what she was saying. I think that we would laugh also.

In the above photo: Left to Right, Mina Ericksen Pritchett, Minetta Black Pritchett, Vivian Christene Pritchett Smith, Toni Fexer (Jessie's granddaughter), Myrna (Me), Jessie Pritchett Brighton.