Palmyra Pageant

We left Utah and flew back to Buffalo, NY- where we flew from when we went to Roger's mother's funeral. Originally, the week we spent in Utah was supposed to be the week that Chad and Michelle and family were supposed to visit us in Canada. When the funeral plans replaced that, we decided to meet Chad and his family in Palmyra.  We left Buffalo and drove 2 1/2 hrs to Palmyra, NY. We were all there to watch the church's Hill Cumorah Pageant.  It was the 75th anniversary of the performance.

We were pretty tired - as you can see by the bags under our eyes - This was my first time there and Roger had only been one other time when he was 10 years old.

Of course, before the show started, we had to play super-heroes with Landon, Sydney, and Keely and their glow in the dark light sticks.

And, how many people can say they've had their picture taken with Joseph Smith??

We stayed in the same motel, but Chad & Michelle had a HUGE family suite:

complete with a Jacuzzi hot tub in the Kitchen!!!

Only one short day's visit and then we had to say good-bye to Chad & Michelle and the family. They headed for Virginia and we headed for Cornwall.

Before leaving we wanted to see the Palmyra Temple. It is exactly the same as the Montreal Temple -

with some gorgeous stained glass windows added:

These windows in the foyer look out onto the Sacred Grove. President Hinckley dedicated this temple.... He said that it's the only place in the world where two temples look out onto each other. It is such a beautiful place.

Then we went over into the Sacred Grove. We saw a couple of missionaries who were serving there- so they showed us several places where there are still a few trees left that were old enough to have been there 193 years ago when Joseph went into that Grove to pray. Here is one:

This is also one - they call it the Apostle Tree because it has 12 major limbs growing out of it.  A few branches have fallen off or broken off by now though.

And it was here where we met some wonderful senior couples on a mission.  We think his should be our next mission. They come and serve here for 2 weeks - only during the pageant. Pretty great mission!!!

It was wonderful to go through the Grove again - such a quiet, spiritual place. And to know that God, our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ actually appeared to Joseph Smith here ! No wonder President Hinckley called this a temple!

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!