10 July 2017

June 26 Thru July 09 2017

GOLDEN: This has been quite a time ending the month of June with my brother Lloyd's passing.  Things have been unsettled pending the outcome of an autopsy to confirm cause of death.  Ultimately, it was heart and complicated by his rheumatic fever when he was only about 6 years old and being a smoker, high blood pressure was one of the things he battled.  But not being able to  stand surgery, two heart attacks caused him to be lost.

The Celebration of Life service will be in Sarasota, Florida on July 23rd.  He would have been 71 years old on October 10th.

Our kids--Matthew and Melissa and Joseph and Chantel have been extremely busy watching out for our best interests as we start to wind down the last six months of our mission.  With their encouragement and help, an offer has been made on a townhouse to downsize at 456 North 1510 West, Lindon, near the freeway and just off Pleasant Grove Parkway.  The plan is for them to only have us move once so it will be ready for our occupancy near Thanksgiving!

Back in Utah, Chantel, Matthew and Melissa were completing a home inspection and negotiating the final counter-offers to the Lindon property--an HOA for 55+ residents.  These first pictures are of the main floor which is over 1500 sq feet.

Front of house 456 North 1510 West

This is the backyard fence of the house 

This is the backyard 

Hallway looking from Living room

Hallway looking from front door into the living room

Living room looking from Kitchen

Kitchen looking from living room

Kitchen looking from dining room

Dining room looking from far wall in dining room

Hallway to master bedroom and laundry room looking from living room

Laundry room

Shower and soaking tub in master bedroom

Double sink in master bedroom

Master bedroom

These next pictures will be of the rooms upstairs.

Stairs going up looking from Living room

Hallway upstairs looking into upstairs bedroom

Looking at family room from upstairs den

Looking at den from upstairs family room

Upstairs bedroom

Upstairs bathroom

Double garage with storage cabinets and finished floor

We are so blessed with the outpouring of love from family, friends, missionaries (temple and otherwise, including our sister missionaries and seniors).

Sunday, July 2nd, we met with Harlem YSA and Harlem 1st Ward Temple and Family History Consultants and worked with them on the importance of clean-up and standardizing the information (beginning with their first four generations) and how to teach members.  This is one of the ways to not only find who may be missing from these families [which is certainly not an uncommon occurrence] and needing temple ordinances, but the importance of documenting with sources in the 1.2+ billion records in FamilySearch.org plus others available through the free premium partner sites for LDS members!  They are starting to feel the Spirit of Elijah and how to share it using the consultant tools and spiritual experience that comes from developing a lesson plan designed for each member so he/she can feel that Spirit!

On Monday, July 3rd, our oldest granddaughter, who just returned from her Toronto Canada Mission, came to New York to spend some time with us so she could help Diane with directions on getting to and from the hospital and any other place they wanted to or needed to go.

 It was Suzie's 21st birthday, so we gave her a birthday card and we bought her an Oreo cheese cake slice for her birthday cake. She got in pretty late, so we just enjoyed the evening and then the next day she wanted to just relax and lay low for a bit until Melanie came in.  We had purchased a train ticket for our daughter, Melanie to come and stay with us for a few days so it made for some really special time together with the two of them.

Melanie was possibly going to be involved in a move to North Carolina so Suzie was going to spend some time to help her pack and move. However, Daniel was able to land a job in Lynchburg, Virginia which is about 30 minutes away from Bedford, Virginia so a move was not necessary at this time. Suzie will be able to just spend time with Melanie and enjoy her kids.

July 4th, Melanie arrived from Lynchburg around 7:00 p.m. so Suzie went exploring on her own into Downtown NYC while we waited for her. In the evening around 9:30 p.m. we went up to the 37th floor where we watched fireworks going off from all around Manhattan. It was fun and brought back some wonderful memories of all the 4th of July celebrations I have done with my family from the time I was a little girl to now. We are so lucky to be free and to have been able to watch the church grow into a world wide organization literally dotting  the earth with temples and fulfilling prophesies that have been told for many years.

Golden and Diane on 37th floor of apartment

Fireworks from on top of 37th floor of apartment bldg.

Fireworks from top of apartment bldg of Golden and Diane

Clouds from smoke of fireworks on top of apartment bldg.

Suzie, Grandpa (Golden) and Melanie on top of Apt Bldg 37th floor

The highlight for today was the blessing I received from President Cam Nixon, counselor in the Manhattan Temple Presidency and Elder Kent Haldeman as I prepared for total hip replacement surgery of my right hip the following day at HSS (Hospital for Special Surgery) -- "where the world comes to get back into the game."  A wonderful feeling of peace and well-being was strongly felt.  So much faith and prayers are being offered up in our behalf.

We were reminded that, unlike Patriarchal Blessings where the focus is on the words of the blessing and its content, healing blessings focus on the other parts of the blessing; the anointing, the sealing, faith, and the will of the Lord as the essential elements.  The words spoken in a healing blessing are not essential to its healing effect. (Elder Dallin H. Oakes, "Healing the Sick", Ensign, May 2010, pp 47-50.)

On Wednesday July 5th, the surgery for right total hip replacement was performed by Dr. Thomas Sculco at HSS (Hospital for Special Surgery). Diane spent most of the day in the waiting room until after the surgery and Melanie and Suzie went touring around New York for the day. I was taken into post op around 4:30 p.m. and Diane was able to come and visit at 6:00 p.m. about the same time that Suzie and Melanie arrived to help me get home.

Dr. Thomas P. Sculco - Surgeon for Golden

The procedures in this hospital are very tight to prevent infections for patients having surgery. They are the top in the nation for the longest problems of infection involved with surgeries. Diane was given a card that had four colors on it.

There was a electronic board, like you see at airports, in the patient waiting area that  displayed all of the patient statuses. All she had to do was look for the patient Identifier number found in the upper right hand corner of the card and it would show the status of the patient. Once I got into recovery, it was about 1 1/2 hours before Diane was able to come and visit. She was only allowed 15 minutes to visit every two hours so after her first visit at 6:00 p.m. she went home and came back the next morning with Suzie and Melanie. They stayed until they were going to bring in lunch, so they left to get their lunch.

After visiting with Golden on Thursday, Suzie, Melanie, and myself went on a taxi cruis around Manhattan and The Statue of Liberty. After we got off, we went and walked around Ground Zero which is a place that I really enjoy. It makes me proud to be an American and to see the miracles of people coming together at a bad time and helping each other out.

Helm of Taxi Bus tour around Manhattan

Suzie on the desk below on the taxi

Melanie and Suzie on Taxi in front of Statue of Liberty

Melanie inside taxi boat around Manhattan

Melanie sitting on Taxi Boat before leaving dock

Melanie and Mom on Taxi Bus Boat

Suzie at the Memory Fountain at Ground Zero

Suzie and Melanie looking at the fish in the pond at Ground Zero 911

On Friday Diane and Suzie came around 11:00 when we thought that I would be released. It was pouring that day so the bus ride was rather eventful because the bus leaked. I changed seats three times trying to dodge the leaks and one time Suzie said "I just got hit on the head, I'm moving". Wherever there was an air conditioning vent, there was a major leak.

Suzie looking at the leak just to the side her head

 Finally at 4:00 p.m. we made it through downed printers and too many patients for nurses and was able to go home. President Nixon came over to the hospital around 3:00 and still had to wait an hour so we were a little concerned for tying him up most of the day. President Nixon is one of the most caring individuals we have met and it was such a wonderful opportunity to work with him.

A funny experience we had was when we kept referring to President Nixon and how he was waiting for us downstairs. The nurse finally asked us if President was his name. We told her that it was just a title as he was a counselor in the Temple but for a short while, she thought that we were talking about THE President Nixon of the United States. To make the mix up even better, President Nixon's wife's name is Pat. We all got a big kick out of that one.

Before long, I was in my room shared with another patient.  But the view to the East River and the Highway was exciting to see, and help with the calm to know that things are progressing forward.

Evening view of the East River from Golden's HSS room

Daytime view of East River from Hospital Room

Saturday, while Suzie and Diane went to see "Phantom of the Opera" I had visits from New York Nursing as well as NY Physical Therapy to get things all set up for home care until I can get back to my own physical therapist at Orthology, Julie Erlich -- a Jewish gal I have also been helping with her family history.

Suzie and Diane (Nana)

Majestic Theater Opera Stage for Phantom of the Opera

[DIANE] As Golden was down for the next three months, I had my first experience in teaching alone. It went quite well except the computers were not able to bring in Puzzilla so I had to focus only on the FamilyTree approach. During the next hour, Lina was able to get Puzzilla onto all of the computers so I think that I will be able to teach it next week.

I did my FH Personal Experience with Ryan McCulloch and I think it went well. I helped him find a whole family that could have their temple work done by finding the "Find A Grave Memorial" for Moses Westfall which provided birth and death information that would allow temple work to be done and the sealing for husband and wife to be completed. By clicking on his spouse listed on the memorial, the same information was provided for her on birth and death which would allow for her work to be done also. Along with the father and mother, there were three more children that could be added and temple work completed for each one.

I also gave him my research on the Irish line and showed him where to go to search the parish records for his family and gave him another family where temple work could be done. Now I must move on to Sarah Taylor Sheffield for her FH Personal Experience.