A Funeral for An Almost Stranger

Weird title, I know.  Let me explain.  Jena performs with the Friend to Friend theatre group on Friday afternoons.  A grandmother of two of the kids in the younger class passed away and she was a BIG fan of Friend to Friend.  The family reached out to Shelley Davies, the director, and invited them to come and perform a song from Wicked as part of the funeral service.  They had learned "For Good" along with the sign language.  Jena was happy to participate so we headed to Centerville last Tuesday for a quick practice and then to sing as part of the service.

They did well and the words were so sweet in that setting. especially being sung by her two grandchildren and their friends.

I've heard it said

That people come into our lives for a reason

Bringing something we must learn

And we are led

To those who help us most to grow

If we let them

And we help them in return

Well, I don't know if I believe that's true

But I know I'm who I am today

Because I knew you...

Like a comet pulled from orbit

As it passes a sun

Like a stream that meets a boulder

Halfway through the wood

Who can say if I've been changed for the better?

But because I knew you

I have been changed for good

It well may be

That we will never meet again

In this lifetime

So let me say before we part

So much of me

Is made of what I learned from you

You'll be with me

Like a handprint on my heart

And now whatever way our stories end

I know you have re-written mine

By being my friend...

Like a ship blown from its mooring

By a wind off the sea

Like a seed dropped by a skybird

In a distant wood

Who can say if I've been changed for the better?

But because I knew you

Because I knew you

I have been changed for good

One additional note:  I have never met Susan Tresse, although I did recognize her grandchildren and their mother from F2F events.  But sitting in her funeral was a special experience.  She led a simple life by many measures and life was hard for her from birth to death--financial pressures, health problems, challenges of every kind---but she had faith and she was gifted to share that faith in poetry and songs...even from a young age, she knew her Heavenly Father loved her and was guiding her life.  It was a worshipful experience.  It made me think that maybe I should just attend funerals of good people every week.  It is so uplifting to learn from the memories of those left behind.

And I certainly have been changed for good by SO SO MANY people in my own personal life.  My heart is filled "with their handprints."

 

"Dancing and Prancing"

 ....for Jena and the rest of the Premier Ballroom and Dance Studio.  I love their December tradition.  Instead of doing a big Christmas recital, they perform at a local Assisted Living Facility and then later on the same day perform at the Festival of Trees in Sandy, Utah.  It is about 1 hour each time--one dance each class and then you are done.  But the Christmas costumes and music is a fun way to start off the holiday season.  Here is some shots from the day--

Practicing their bow at the Dress rehearsal on Friday

Their final bows
I was sitting anywhere to get a picture of them dancing

Afterwards, the dancers went and talked to
the residents.  That was a good experience as well.

Jena's classmates and teachers

At the Festival of Trees

Afterwards, Jena and I strolled around the Festival and checked out some of the 1000 trees.  This is a fundraiser for Primary Children's Hospital, some place we are fans of.  People's creativity was amazing!

Christmas is really coming again this year!

Dining--Out and About Town

Last Sunday when I reviewed the week's activities, I realized that I was not having dinner at home any of days Monday through Friday AND Saturday lunch was not at home, either.  It was all good stuff, but just funny that it all fell on this same week---

It went like this:

Monday-- Dinner at the Cheesecake Factory in City Creek Mall, Salt Lake City---with three of the sweet missionaries we served with in the Church History Library--Jim and Linda Twelmeyer and Marianne Jones. The Twelmeyers were in town visiting family and called to set up this meal.  This was a place we went a few times with them so it was a perfect place to gather for a meal and conversation.  Before dinner, the three of us were able to visit The Light the World Giving Machines where we donated to Special Olympics, The Stella Oaks Foundation, and another place I can't remember that provided computer training for refugees--Gary's choice.

It was so great to be together and so much to talk about that we ran out of time.  We will actually spend time with the Twelmeyers in their home in South Carolina in May and then Marianne is going with us to Africa next July.

Tuesday--  Dinner at City Creek Mall-Food Court with Ben.  Ben likes the Celtic Woman and they were performing that night at Abravanel Hall.  It made him very nervous, but he was brave and made the trip to downtown despite those fears and we had a fun Christmas concert.  (The food from the food court was just average.)

Tuesday's meal

Lights in the Mall

At the concert

I enjoyed the concert, but Ben was a bit disappointed because his favorite singer is no longer in the group and they sang mostly Christmas songs.  We will watch for other concerts in our area in the future--non Christmas ones.  Glad to share this one with Ben.

Wednesday--  In preparation for the film screening that was hosted by USSC on Thursday, some of us met for dinner with the film maker Gail Freeman.  We met at J Wong in (you guessed it-) in downtown Salt Lake.  It is also great to have time with these amazing people, to meet Gail and also to spend time with Crystal Fox and her daughter, from Angry Moms Arizona. The food was great--I had yellow curry and conversations were even better. They have a robot server who carries out the food.  So fun!

L-R: Debby Anderson, Deb Widmer, Therese Cavlovic, Gail Freeman,
Crystal Fox and her daughter, Mia, me, Sherri Wittwer, Angela Provstgaard and
last but not least Nick Pensari from the County DA's office

Thursday-- This was the night of our pre-screening of Gail's documentary "No One Cares About Crazy People."  We (USSC) sponsored this event and held it at the Main Salt Lake County Library.  The auditorium holds about 300 people and we had about 280 pre-register and about 200-220 in attendance.  It was a great event and a good connector with others who are interested in this population of individuals with severe mental illnesses. I headed down around 4 to help get things set up and then just talked to people before and after the movie.  Five people (at least) came from DBH which was so great including Ben's psychiatrist, Dr. Schenk and Dr. Todd Souter who runs Crisis and CIT in the state.

Deb Widmer welcoming our guests

I did have dinner that night again but it was at 9:15 pm at a downtown drive up window of McDonalds.  I realized I felt too hungry to wait 45 minutes to get home. Meal #4 in Salt Lake.

Friday--  This time dinner wasn't in Salt Lake, but at our Stake Center for our Ward Christmas Party.  It was good food, good conversation, and a sweet program--a video interviewing youth and Primary kids in our ward about Christmas and Jesus Christ.  It was so awesome.  Just the right thing for a Ward Christmas Party.

Saturday-- This was one of Jena's busy performance days so I will make a separate post about that--but in keeping with the "theme" of the week, she and I ate a late lunch in Bountiful between her performance there and her later one down at the Festival of Trees in Sandy.

For the record--we did eat dinner at home--around 8:00 pm---Jena had burrittos and I ate a salad.

In addition to all of these things--and the prep work related to them, we also attended the temple and kept working on getting our house ready for guests next week.  The basement carpet is being cleaned tomorrow so I was busy with the total cleaning and reorganizing and de junking of the storage room.  Good progress is being made and hopefully that continues into this next week.

And Christmas decorating and gifting getting are in full swing.....

Happy Birthday, Zander!!

 This is slightly out of order as his actual birthday isn't (wasn't) until December 4, but on the Friday after Thanksgiving, I (with Ben and Jena) took him for his birthday dinner.  He chose Asian Buffet where we had celebrated the September birthdays.  I was excited that he liked "Chinese" food, but no, he loves their Mac and Cheese and french fries!! And the cooler of small ice cream cartons.  Luckily, they had the Mac and Cheese and it was as good as he remembered it.

photo by Ben

photo by me

Because we weren't available on his actual birthday (and the several days right before it), we also opened presents with him from us when we got back to his house. (Gary missed the fun as he was subbing at the temple.)

He seemed happy with the new hoodie
and the games we gave him. (His book was too
late for opening on this day so will happen
on Ezri's birthday lunch day next week.)

Jessica sent this photo from his birthday.  They had put balloons on their already decorated Christmas tree to bring in a birthday vibe for the day.  Zander loved it.

Happy Birthday, Zander.  I know you were so excited to be 9.  You have talked about it for a couple of months.