SPECIAL TEMPLE WEEKEND

We had a very special weekend. Bob, Heidi, Kelli and I went to the Mt. Timpanogos Temple and did baptisms for my stepfather, Harlan Cawelti, his first wife Mary Jane and their daughter, Kathy. Ever since I joined the church in 1976 I have wanted to get Kathy's temple work done.

My mother married Harley when I was just six years old. That is when my life started settling down, and so did my mom! Harley had an ex-wife and two children. His children didn't live with us, but I met them a few times. Kathy was a few years older than me. She was beautiful, inside and out! She was a cheerleader in high school and she was Homecoming Queen. She had a beautiful smile and she was so sweet!

Out of high school, she started college at El Camino College. She worked as a checker (I guess they call them cashiers now) at a store and she went to college. She was a busy 18 year-old young woman. She went to a restaurant in San Bernardino one weekend. Soon after eating at the restaurant Kathy became ill. She couldn't shake the illness and she went to Kaiser, the medical group. She wasn't seen by her regular doctor. The on-call doctor there told her she was just tired from being a busy young woman. Kathy went home and soon fell into a coma. She was rushed to the hospital by an ambulance, but it was too late. Kathy soon died of Hepatitis. She was just a couple weeks short of her 19th birthday. They traced the cause to the chef in the restaurant in Big Bear.

I was just short of my 12th birthday and I was at school the day Kathy died. I came home that afternoon and sat at the counter, where my mom and Harl and I always ate an early dinner together. While we were eating my mom said, "Kathy died today." Harl stoically ate his food. I wasn't mature enough to respond. We sat in silence. I didn't do anything or say anything. I didn't know what to say. We ate as if nothing had happened.

Years later, my mom and I had been to the doctor's and found out she had terminal cancer. (Harl had fallen and broken his hip just a couple hours before the set time of the appointment so he was in surgery replacing his hip when I took my mom to her appointment.) A few days later Harl was at home and I was there with them. My mom told Harl that her cancer was terminal. I was sitting on the couch next to the chair where Harl was sitting. We sat, staring at the TV. Soon I began to hear him stoically stifling a cry. I immediately remembered that day, long ago, when I didn't do or say anything to comfort him. I refused to let that happen this time. I refused to let him hold in his pain alone. I got up off the couch and went to him and held him in my arms. He cried and cried. So did I. In the 36 years of him being my dad, I had never seen or heard him cry. When we finally stopped, my mom said, "I don't ever want to see this kind of display again." I said, "Mom, you are dying. You will see us crying."

Well, this weekend I was again crying, but this time they were tears of joy. Harl and his first wife and their beautiful daughter, Kathy, were sealed together for time and all eternity. My daughter Dianna was proxy for Mary Jane, my son-in-law Todd was proxy for Harl and I was proxy for Kathy. It was the best! Then Bob and I stood in for my mom and Harl and got them sealed together, too. This was a very special weekend!