Katie's Funeral

Just a few pictures from the viewing. I didn't take many, but I did want to share the few I did. Mary had fallen asleep on the way to the mortuary and was quite distraught with being woken up. Dennis held her for a while but then tried to pass her off. She wouldn't have it. We finally got her a chair to sit by him. She sat there and held his hand for a large portion of the night. It was so sweet.

Caleb had been so concerned all week about 'being there for Brandon and Jeffrey' and wanted them to feel like he cared. He was a bit frustrated that they had to stand in the line because that meant he couldn't spend the time with them he wanted. So he joined them! He stood in the line with them most of the evening and quite a bit of the next day just to be a support for them. It was so so sweet.

Camille and Alexa (didn't get a picture of Drew)

I wanted to share just a few things from the tribute we gave at Katie's funeral (because we were running long, some of these things were not shared at that time).

After Katie's first year of college she got a job at Pizza Villa. Often I would have to go pick her up from work. At the end of each day, they just threw away any extra dough they had. But instead of doing that, we would secretly gift it to people—often leaving it on their doorsteps or in their mail boxes. Our hope was that it would rise and become a larger gift than we left. After dropping it off, we always got away fast! Once time we were in our dad's little white pick up truck with friends in the back. We delivered the pizza dough to a house on a deserted gravel road. We saw a car coming and just knew the people in it were the recipient of our gift. In that little stick-shift truck, Katie spun quite a bit on the gravel before peeling out. It made quite a racket and roughed up the rear passengers. Thankfully we weren't caught, but we became less-frequent doughers after that—perhaps that also had to do with our guilt about committing this crime on a seminary teacher! Katie was always a lot of fun.

Last year I needed a story about smiles effecting people for my sharing time. I asked my family in an email for help. This is the story I got from Katie:

"After my surgery and hardships after it, I was frustrated with the lack of service I could give. I prayed and felt inspired to wave at people. I couldn't drive, cook, clean, garden, sew or anything else, but I could wave and smile."

One day in this past October I called Katie. I asked what she was doing. She was moping floor---with one hand. I tried to talk her out of that telling her it wasn't necessary. But she wanted to. She had waited for so long to have this addition to her home and she wanted to keep it nice. Cleaning was such an important homemaking skill to her. She knew that a clean home invited the Spirit and she wanted to have a home worthy of that.

Katie told me that she really did not feel like going to church the Sunday after returning from Disneyland. She just didn't know how she could go and make it feeling the way she was. But then she realized that no matter how terrible she felt, she would go with her friends to lunch the next day. She couldn't justify missing church because she was miserable if the next day she was going to go out with friends regardless of how she felt. So she went. What an example!

Just last month Katie shared with me that her darkest moments of her life have been during pregnancies—even harder than cancer has been for her. She was willing to endure those painful months to bring each of her babies into the world. She always said that all she really wanted to be was a Mom--even at an emotional cost greater than cancer would be to her.

We feel that Katie's work from the other side of the veil began very soon. Just one evidence of that: The day Katie passed away, Mary was lost. While she wasn't crying or acting distraught, she would not leave Dennis's side or arms. She would not look at others or talk to them. The next morning she woke up at 6:00 and came right to me. She looked me in the eye and said with all the confidence in the world, “Mommy's better now.” Then she let me hold her and talk to her. Dennis came in and said that Mary told him “Mommy whispered in my ear. She is better now.” Mary was a different girl after that. She played and talked and interacted like before. I don't think that anything else could have convinced her and changed her behavior so dramatically. Tender mercies abound!

I'll close with the end of my dad's talk:

Now we have lost our mother, wife, daughter, sister and friend. Does this frustrate the plan of our Father in Heaven? Does it frustrate the plan for this family? No to both questions. Everything is in order. God will compensate for our loss and make us all better because of it. Jesus is the Christ and has prepared everything for our returning to the God who gave us life.