Aunt Eva

Since I went to her graveside service yesterday, I decided to list my favorite memories of Aunt Eva. Mostly I think I loved her chuckle--that deep, rumbling chuckle which she used so frequently. At her funeral, they mentioned how she loved people, which was obvious in how she acted towards us every time we visited. There was mention of the murals on her walls, and I know we always looked for the flagpole out front. (There was a flagpole out front of every place they lived in.) Nobody loved food and chocolates the way she did. Our St. George visits just won't be the same. As her children and grandchildren talked about her I kept thinking how funny it was they were talking about our Eva like she was theirs, when she was really ours!

The one funny thing about yesterday was when I mentioned to Uncle Juel's daughter-in-law that Uncle Juel had performed Dad's and my marriage. Her face was so priceless--such a look of utter shock and disbelief. She said all their daughters had wanted him to perform their marriage but he just wouldn't. He wouldn't ever get special permission to perform it at another temple. Her husband mentioned the same thing. He said his dad just really didn't like performing the marriages and that we must have been married at the temple where he was assigned as a sealer. I explained to both of them that we did get married at the Provo Temple where he was a sealer and that we did it soon after he became a sealer. After thinking about it for a while, I wondered if perhaps he learned from our wedding that live weddings of relatives were too stressful for him. (He mentioned later to my mother or someone that he was more nervous at our wedding than any others he had done.) I felt a bit guilty that we got something his own grandchildren didn't, but as Katrina* pointed out, I am the daughter of the Palsy-Walsy which is probably even more important!

This picture was the best I could do. It's from the day of our wedding, out in front of the temple. See how young we looked! And how young Beverly and Joyce (on either side of us) looked! That's Aunt Eva and Uncle Juel next to Joyce. Then Carlene, Dave, and my Grandma Hardy. Time flies too, too fast. And next thing you know, there's a cute little grandson walking around.

*I originally credited the Palsy-Walsy reference to Mark, but Katrina had really pointed it out to me. Sorry, Katrina!