A Visit with Aunt Helen Rae

For the last several  months Reed and I have talked about going down to Soda Springs to visit our Aunt Helen Rae.  She is one of two surviving children of our grandparents, Aurthur Phipp and Nina Passey Eborn.  She is currently 88 years old and we hadn't seen her for quite a long time. The other surviving child is Uncle Weldon, who is currently in the nursing home in Montpelier.  We need to make a point to go and see him too. 

Aunt Helen Rae  has always been special to many in the family.  She has gone out of her way to visit us, send us Christmas cards, give us phone calls and just generally shown an interest in so many members of the extended family.  Reed reminded her that nearly everyone who speaks of her includes the word "angel" in their description.  I remember when we lived in Montpelier many of the people we knew always spoke kindly of her after finding that she was our aunt.  I know Mom and Dad appreciated her frequent visits to their home in Lanark, and especially when they were at the Bear Lake Memorial Hospital in Montpelier.  She would often bring a treat and always an encouraging word and a listening ear.  When we lived in Montpelier she and Harry would sometimes stop by to check on Iris and me and our family.  Whenever their was a wedding reception in our family or the extended family she always made an effort to be there.  I can only imagine how many wedding receptions she has attended over the years.

In Aunt Helen Rae's advancing years her body is showing the signs of wear, but her mind is alert and her memory keen.  She takes great pride in her loving family and their accomplishments.  She is fortunate to have her daughter, Janet, and her family living close by in Soda Springs.  While we were there Janet just happened to show up to check on her, which she does often.  This is a great comfort to Aunt Helen Rae.

As I look back over the many years at my own relationship with Aunt Helen Rae, I remember that she always lifted our spirits with her happy smile and words of encouragement.  She never went away without having lifted us and making us feel better than when she came.  What a marvelous ability, one we all should cultivate.

Aunt Helen Rae has always been an example of what a true Christian should be.  She quietly went about doing good wherever she could.  In the process she touched the lives of many people.  Aunt Helen Rae served as a temple officiator for several years in the Logan Temple and it has been a joy to see her there since we started our service.  Lately she has not been able to come because it is becoming to difficult to get around.  In her absence it has been good to see, Janet, at the Temple from time to time.

Aunt Helen Rae was not really thrilled about posing for a picture, but she relented.  Here we see Aunt Helen Rae and her daughter Janet at home in Soda Springs, Idaho.

Here we (Reed and Bart) are with our dear Aunt Helen Rae.  It certainly was worth making the trip to see her.  We hope to do it again.  Today was Valentine's Day and we took her a few roses.  She was happy to be remembered.

So God Made a Farmer

Like many others, I'm glad we had the chance to grow up on a farm.  Life wasn't always easy, but it greatly helped to make us what we are and I think that it was for our good.  I like this Youtube video which very much typifies our parents and our grandparents who were also farmers, as were nearly all of our friends and neighbors and their families back in the "good old days".

http://youtu.be/AMpZ0TGjbWE

So God Made a Farmer
And on the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, “I need a caretaker.” So God made a farmer.
God said, “I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the field, milk cows again, eat supper, then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the township board.” So God made a farmer.
“I need somebody with arms strong enough to wrestle a calf and yet gentle enough to cradle his own grandchild. Somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to wait for lunch until his wife’s done feeding visiting ladies, then tell the ladies to be sure to come back real soon and mean it.” So God made a farmer.
God said, “I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt and watch it die, then dry his eyes and say, ‘Maybe next year,’ I need somebody who can shape an ax handle from an ash tree, shoe a horse, who can fix a harness with hay wire, feed sacks and shoe scraps. Who, during planting time and harvest season will finish his 40-hour week by Tuesday noon and then, paining from tractor back, up in another 72 hours.” So God made a farmer.
God had to have somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to get the hay in ahead of the rain clouds and yet stop in mid-field and race to help when he sees the first smoke from a neighbor’s place. So God made a farmer.
God said, “I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bales, yet gentle enough to help a newborn calf begin to suckle and tend the pink-comb pullets, who will stop his mower in an instant to avoid the nest of meadowlarks.”
It had to be somebody who’d plow deep and straight and not cut corners. Somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed, brake, disk, plow, plant, strain the milk, replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week’s work with an eight mile drive to church. Somebody who’d bale a family together with the soft, strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh, and then sigh and then reply with smiling eyes when his family says that they are proud of what Dad does. “So God made a farmer.”

by Bart