A House Full of Family

Judy and I moved through several homes before settling at 925 Donner Way. She had a gift for improving a house, seeing what a room could become, and making decisions that turned property into a home. We redecorated and replaced nearly everything needed so the house could carry us through the later part of life. I became deeply comfortable there.^[1]

Church service placed me in quorums, a high council, and a university ward bishopric. The work could be joyful and heavy. One community idea began modestly: a Fourth of July breakfast in the park, cooked on simple equipment. Another ward joined, and the breakfast eventually grew to roughly five hundred people. For years it gave the neighborhood a tradition that belonged to everyone.^[2]

Then our children married. We loved Monique and Joe for the lives they built with Jeremy and Jody. Grandchildren followed: Alexis, Timmy, twins Gavin and Cole, Michaela, and Daniel. I will never forget sitting on the couch with one twin under each arm while we watched cartoons or whatever they loved. Sunday dinners and ordinary visits became the events that gave time its value.^[3]