One hard week

We had only been back in Cornwall for 1 week when we got the call that Roger's mother had passed away on Friday morning, July 6, 2012.  The Mission President was wonderful and allowed us to go home for a week so we could be at her funeral.

Most of the family who had come for the funeral came to our house to be together and make plans for the funeral.
Monday - July 9 - Most of the women went to the Sundberg Olpin Mortuary to help dress mom. The same Mortuary used for Dad Mahaffey. Left to Right: Barbara Veatch, Rhonda Tucker, Layne Krey, Misty Mahaffey, Diedra Mahaffey, Holly Kahre, Valerie Mahaffey, Aubrey Mahaffey.

We were so glad that Layne & Misty were able to come!

That night was going to be the viewing at the Mortuary, so before going, Our family went out to eat at Cafe Rio- our favorite.

The girls chose that time to give Roger a remembrance from the whole family.

 When my mom died, they all gave me a beautiful silver necklace - an eternity knot. For Roger, they gave him a beautiful plaque. It is framed with some real "mites" in it.... From the story of the Widow's mite in the Bible- Luke 21.  It will be a wonderful remembrance of his mother!

We left the restaurant and went to the Mortuary for the viewing that Monday evening.

This arrangement was sent from our family:

This arrangement was right beside the casket and it was sent by her 25 grand children and 53 great-grand children.  There was a matching arrangement at the other end, sent by her brother..Bill Robertson.

They had a small display of memorabilia from her life:

This was the arrangement that was sent by our mission - so thoughtful !

Wonderfully sweet friends came to support us ... The Giles, who were senior missionaries in our mission and have now returned home to Midway, UT -  and Kraig and Nelleen Moll from our Utah Ward and old friends from California.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012 - the funeral day:
Here we are at our home that morning, along with Layne & Misty.

The funeral was held at Barbara & Dick's ward, which was Eileen's ward too, since she lived with them - Suncrest Ward in Orem, UT.  The Pallbearers were: (left to right) James Gerhart (Wendy's husb.), Miguel Aguilera (Amy's husb.), Parker Veatch (Dan & Missy's son), Shay Allen (Chelsea's husb.), Reed Miner (Annalee's husb.), Nick Vitone (Tiffany's husb.), Dan Veatch (Barbara & Dick's son), Joseph Mahaffey (Rod & Valerie's son), Brian Kahre (Holly's husb.), Westin Lemon (Kristin's husb.), Luke Doty (Ashley's husb.).

It was a lovely funeral, and very many there.  She was buried next to her husband out at Camp Williams, the
veteran's cemetery near Riverton, UT.

All of the pall bearers put their corsages onto the casket, even all the young great-grandsons who were honorary pall bearers.

All of Eileen's children:  Rodney Mahaffey, Rhonda Tucker, Barbara Veatch, and Roger Mahaffey.

All of Barbara & Dick's children were there:

Rodney's children who were there: Amy, Wendy, Joseph, Holly, Ashley and Aubrey (unable to be there           were Jacob and Jordan)
Rhonda's children who were there: Kristen Becca, and Tiffany & husband -Nick & Tiffany (below) -
    Unable to be there were Gary and Scott.  (Brandon previously passed away)
Of course, I wasn't able to get all those families together for a picture... wouldn't you know?

Our family who were there: Layne and Misty. Unable to come, Brooke, Chad, and Lindsay.

At the luncheon afterward, Barbara brought in lots of grandmas clothing, in case anyone wanted any. All the grand-daughters thought it would be fun to have each of them take one of her MANY sweaters and sweatshirts and put it on and take a picture to remember her.

Back: Annalee Veatch Miner, Melissa Veatch Britton, Layne Mahaffey Krey, Maren Veatch Blohm, Ashley 

             Mahaffey Doty.

Middle: Rhonda Mahaffey Tucker, Amy Mahaffey Aguilera, Wendy Mahaffey Gerhart, Kristin Tucker 

               Lemon, Aubrey Mahaffey, Meredith Veatch.

Front:  Misty Mahaffey, Barbara Mahaffey Veatch, Holly Mahaffey Kahre, and Chelsea Veatch Allen.

Later they put out all of Grandma's jewelry to let us each, one by one, pick something to remember her by.
Here is Misty modeling some of her bling:

And, of course, she entertained us all with her ever-popular rendition of "CHUBBY".

Grandpa Dick Veatch just sat around loving his newest little grand-daughter - Chelsea's little girl, Irish.

We were so sad that we didn't make it there BEFORE she died- but so grateful that we had spoken with her on the phone and saw each other on SKYPE just the day before.  Mostly we were grateful to have had the chance to go back for the funeral.

            Eileen at 21                                                                                          Eileen at 88

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!

We got home just in time to celebrate Canada's version of our Independence Day.  As it was Sunday, we sang their national anthem in Sacrament Meeting... O Canada. It was very stirring! I'll have to admit that it made me a little nostalgic for the US. They had this sheet music on every chair  (I think because MOST Canadians don't know the 2nd & 3rd verses! They usually only sing the first verse. Many of the members said..."We didn't even know there WERE any other verses !)

That night we went with the Merpaw to see the fireworks they shoot off over the St.Lawrence River.
We were appropriately attired in our CANADA T-Shirts!

We went to the small town next door to us - Long Sault (pronounced Long-Sue) and at right out by the river. We've NEVER been so close to fireworks in our lives! The roped off part of the lawn was where  all the machinery was and they shot off the fireworks from there. We were probably only 200 yards away!! WOW! It was really fantastic to be that close. We were even closer than when we went to the A's stadium to watch fireworks on Zach's birthday!

It was a wonderful evening. Everyone who came wore some kind of red & white. Everyone brought lawn chairs and just enjoyed the nice cool evening by the river. There was mostly families, no drinking, no loud music, and no one ruined it in any way. What a refreshing change!

Moving again???

Yes, more moving....After several days in the Sister Missionaries' vacant apartment and the Cannons' family gone, we moved back into the Mission Home for 3 days. Then our Senior CES Couple - the Nobles - went home. So we moved from the Mission Home into their vacated apartment. At least it still had all the furniture and dishes etc. They live on the 11th floor of this building.

It has a gorgeous view of St. Joseph's Cathedral out of the large living room windows:

We stayed here one week to finish our training of the Conways. Then, since the apartment was being vacated, we have to move all the furniture to the mission storage unit. (The NEW CES couple will be moving into the apartment building where the other senior couples live. Luckily we had several young missionaries to help us:

Elders Jaquier, Dalton, Smedley and Tam relaxing on one of the 3 couches that came out of that apartment!
We HAD to take a picture of the old and new CASH COUNT... outgoing Elder Mahaffey and incoming Elder Conway:

So... we are finally on our way back  to our home in Cornwall after 3 1/2 months and SIX moves!!  Our poor bodies are ready for our own bed and a little less hectic daily schedule! But, I will have to say, we truly loved working in the office!  Getting to know so many missionaries and feel of their wonderful spirit made it an unforgettable experience!

A very busy Sunday

Since we've been  working in the Mission Office, the President has asked us to attend the Kirkland Ward. It is about 30 minutes away from our apt. bldg. It has been wonderful to meet many new people. It is a much larger ward than Cornwall. These are two of the fantastic elders serving there:

Elder Williams and Elder Teuira. As we will be leaving soon and heading back to Cornwall, E. Williams wanted a picture, so I HAD to take one too.

Then, that night, we were back at the Mission Home for another Bienvenue Dinner to welcome our replacements in the office - Elder & Sister Conway - from Tooele, Utah - and the new couple taking over the Center for Young Adults in Quebec City - Elder & Sister Saintonge - that are from here.

We always have fun after dinner. President will ask us to go around room and introduce ourselves and then he always has something fun he wants us to tell about. Tonight it was our favorite scripture and why.

We are so lucky to have such a wonderful group of Senior Couples that we love!

What a busy day!

Since coming to Montreal we have moved several times.  First we came to train for serving in the office with the Giles, before they went home. We lived in their building in a vacant apt. we were preparing for another Senior couple to come- The Allens. (putting together lots of IKEA furniture!). Then, when the Giles left, we moved into their old apt. on the 16th floor.  When our replacements finally arrived - The Conways from Tooele, UT - they moved into the 16th floor apt.  We were supposed to go & live at the mission home while we trained them, but, of course, nothing is every easy!  President & Sister Cannon were having 10 members of their family come that week, so we had to move into an empty missionary apt. we were preparing for a set of sisters. We took our Aero beds-
(blow up mattresses) and our luggage and were off again to move into a totally bare apt.  Today we were at the Mission Storage Unit moving some furniture in and out. It is in a large Jewish section of town. (Right beside the storage building is the BEST Jewish bakery in the world!!!) It was Saturday - their Shabbat- Sabbath) and we noticed a large number of the men leaving their services. I have been so intrigued with some of their clothing as we have watched them coming & going- so I thought I would get a picture of them.  I saw one elderly gentleman walking alone, so I came up to him & said, Excuse me... wanting to get him to explain about their wonderful round bear-skin hats. He totally ignored me & kept walking. Not to be deterred, I said again, Excuse me, sir....  Nothing... he didn't look up, or at me, but just kept walking. These are very orthodox Jews & it dawned on me then, that women are not highly regarded among them & they would never speak to a Gentile woman!  But, I wanted a picture of their clothing...rats!  So, I decided to hide behind a huge bush and as they walked
past, I took several pictures, surreptitiously!  (I know, I know...

I am so intrigued by these bear-skin hats. They are called Shtreimels (Schtray-ml) and they are very expensive! Usually upwards of $1000. and only married men wear them. I don't know if they are hot, but they wear them winter and summer.

The Jewish religion requires the men to have their head covered, so some just wear regular black hats, and the young ones usually only wear the yarmulkes.

All have beards and most have the side curls - very Hasidic. 

After getting all the furniture moved, we decided we needed some lunch. The missionaries told us that the best burgers in town were at Burger de Ville.  It's a place similar to Fuddruckers in that you build your own burger with whatever you want on it. They were certainly right... It was great!!

It took alot to get Elder LeVitre to NOT go to his favorite place...McDonalds !!! AAGGHH!!  But
after eating, he decided it was pretty good! ha!
Since we couldn't get into the next apt. until after 5pm, we decided we would take the rest of the day and go sightseeing down in Old Town section of Montreal.  It is downtown, right on the St.Lawrence River. We parked right across from the Hotel de Ville:

The Hotel de Ville really isn't a hotel at all... It is City Hall. We dropped in to pick up a couple of city lapel pins... called epinglettes. The missionaries here all collect a pin from each city where they serve. Some cities charge for them, some give them away.  Here is the pin from Montreal:

The most famous street in all of Montreal:

The walkway down to the river is lined with restaurants.

with, of course... a little of the US thrown in....

All of the restaurants have inside & outside eating... and always alot of flowers!

 

Hotel Nelson is this amazing restaurant that has been reconverted from on old 1804 hotel. It was named after a patriot of the Rebellion of 1837 and the ninth mayor of Montreal. It is wonderful inside:

As you go down this street and turn the corner, you come to Rue des Artists, or Artists' Alley:

We were VERY tempted to buy a beautiful scene of Montreal.... It was very expensive, though,... and
as Roger says... We'll just have to haul it home!... (so romantic, that man of mine!)

 

It was a fun day. Still, we like Quebec's old city more. Montreal has not done as much to preserve their old section of the city as Quebec. What you cannot see in all these pictures are the tall smoked glass & steel skyscrapers right across the street.  It sort of ruins that old world charm. 

May Zone Conference & Fireside

No sooner had Lindsay, Cameron & family left than we had to help with Zone Conferences. The Senior couples always help with the luncheon (since none of the wards here are financially set enough to furnish the luncheons). This was the last luncheon the Nobles were in charge of. We will miss them so much! Today's menu: Sloppy Joes, potato salad, green salad, & fruit. The triangular Ciabatta rolls they sell in Costco here are very good.

This is the Mont-Royal Zone. There are 5 zones in our mission. This is the mission where we serve.

Back: Nobles, S.Limburg, S.Gutierrez, E.Teuira, Williams, Prawitt, Mieville, Brown, LeVitres, Us
Middle: E. Hayden, Bagnall, Green, Nzojibwami, Tam, Bernier, Dalton, Holm, Babin, Jaquier
Front:  E.McMurrin, Glenn, McRoberts, Neitz, Kastendieck, Pres.Cannon, E&S. Christensen - Area
                                          mental health Missionaries.

Then on Sunday night we were so thrilled to have a Senior Couple fireside at the Mission Home led by our temple president Pres.David Galbraith & his wife (center). He got his doctorate at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, then stayed for the next 20 years working for the church to procure the land and build the BYU Jerusalem Center and be it's director for several years. He came home to teach at
BYU - then was called on a 3-year mission to be the temple president here. They go home the end of Oct. 2012. He is so knowledgeable about the middle east. The fireside was on the Arabic-Israeli conflict!  It was fascinating.
Back: LeVitres, Pres.&Sister Cannon, Nobles-(she is taking the picture).
Front: Allens, Galbraiths, Mahaffeys