Surprise: Happy, Happy, Happy Anniversary
In July of 1994, my two sisters and I sifted through the belongings in our widowed mother’s home. She lay in a hospital nearby, unconscious and dying of a massive stroke at the age of 78. She lingered...
View ArticleNames
MY GRANDMA HAS LIVED two lives. She’s lived one life here, in St. Louis, as my Grammie—feeding her grandchildren cucumbers dipped in sugar, taking her first driver’s ed class when she was seventy-two,...
View ArticleFamily History: One Hour a Week
Ten years ago my stake president gave us a challenge to find some names to take to the temple. Bless my heart, I tried. I looked through the threads of my Family Search tree, tracing them back through...
View ArticlePioneer Grandmothers and Helping Babies Breathe in Nepal
My eyes still well up with tears when I recall the excruciating ordeal of my first baby’s birth. The most comforting thing during those thirty-one hours was when my mom whispered to me, “Kimberly, all...
View ArticleHonorable Mention Poetry: On Bornholm
I look for stipples of myself in white-washed, rough-walled rundkirker, where infant ancestors were baptized in stone fonts next to Viking steles. I listen for echoes of my pulse between the pooled...
View ArticleJournaling a Life: forty-four diaries and counting
When I turned eight I wanted white leather roller skates with bubblegum pink wheels. The gift box was hefty enough, but no luck. It was my first journal. My early ones were red leather from Deseret...
View ArticleFinding My Grandfather by Sylvia Newman
Finding My Grandfather by Sylvia Newman My paternal grandfather died at the age of 44, decades before I was born. My maternal grandfather died when I was two, and I have no memories of him except the...
View ArticlePondering about the Temple
I returned a few minutes ago from attending the temple. Cars packed the parking lot; people waiting for the next session (a good hour and a half wait) filled the chapel and overflow area. The organist...
View ArticleProse Journal Entry: “Generations” by Ranae Rudd
Generations by Ranae Rudd I used to run away from toilets. Not because of their unnatural gargling sounds or because of the sucking, swirling motion that came from flushing. I ran because the movie...
View ArticleGood Pioneer Stock?
Although I grew up in the Church, I don’t remember hearing the phrase “good pioneer stock” until I came to Utah for college. I didn’t like the phrase then, and I still don’t. It carries a whiff of...
View Article