May 3-10 07

May 3-10

We had a great time at Cade’s graduation. We are very proud of him and Andi. It was fun to see Heather and Beckie and Ethan and Allison. We do have a great family and enjoy every minute we get to spend with them, even though poor Grandpa will never be able to forget the “Go to your room, Old Man” from Allison.

We had a good flight home on Monday, but I was very sick by the time we arrived in Phoenix. Have a bad cold, and could hardly keep my eyes open. Nevertheless, missionary work goes on. We stopped at Deseret Industries and picked up a couch for Cheryl. Hopefully there will be a bit of a break from the redecorating for a while.

I slept all the way home and went right to bed when we got here, leaving Robert to deal with the Elders. On Tuesday he fixed them breakfast then I got up to go to the funeral for Myrna’s baby. It was a nice service. Robert was an impromptu speaker and I was the music. They had some of the grandchildren sing “I Am a Child of God.” Very nice. They also decided to have an opening and closing song which was chosen as Bonito announced them. As they viewed the little body Bonito came down and said, “Can you play God Be With you?” I was a little insulted that he thinks I couldn’t. I played it as they viewed the body and it really was a good choice.

Then went to the graveyard. This is the first time we’d been to a burial, and it was quite an experience. The people dig the graves themselves. If it’s an adult the tribe sends a backhoe to help them, but for a baby they had to do it all. So it’s not a very deep grave. The undertaker said there are no regulations out here, so people just dig the grave as deep as they want it to be. When they were ready to put the casket in the ground Myrna filled a baby bottle with juice and put it next to the baby. They opened a can of formula and put it in also. Then around the casket they put anything that was designated for the baby…blankets, toys, diaper bag, clothes. Maxine told me they believe it’s bad luck to give any of the baby’s things to another child. Then when they finished Bonito handed a shovel to Elder Day and said, “Help them.” So several of the men started filling in the grave. When the grave was filled in and they’d made a mound on top, the women came over and decorated the grave with more toys and flowers. The men placed a wooden cross they had made at the head of the grave and that too was decorated with flowers. They had painted the baby’s name, Chance Rendell Townsend, and his date of birth and death on the cross. Elder Rogers also helped fill in the grave and they both agreed this was a first for their mission experiences. Cecil Ivins, Myrna’s father and second counselor in our branch presidency, gave the dedicatory prayer in Apache and a few remarks.

Then we went to dinner at Myrna’s. It was a very small dinner, as only close friends and family had attended the funeral. We came home and I went back to bed for a couple of hours. The Elders finally left about 8:30. We always think they should go a little earlier, but they want to hang out to the very last minute. Before the funeral today Robert and both Elders worked on the yard around the church. The Elders mowed the lawn and cut the weeds and Robert says he supervised them. He says he played a fatherly support role. All our kids know what that means. Anyway, the church looked really nice when they finished.

Wednesday we claimed as a P-day, although Robert still had to do Scouts last night. During the day he met Steve and got his golfing day in. I worked a little on my scrapbooks (finally made a book for Jeron), but didn’t feel good still and really didn’t do very much.

Today I made chocolate cake for homemaking meeting, and took Ricky and Cheryl to Show Low to do some shopping. Now it’s 5:00 and I’m getting ready to go pick up people for homemaking.