Getting started

Today was a special event for me - I went to the temple with the youth of our ward while they did baptisms for the dead. I took the names of Charlie's father and all four of his grandparents for the youth to do. It is one of those strange things, the temple was extremely important to Charlie and he was there all the time, but he had never done any of his family's work. He and I both approached it the same way - we would do the temple work when we had all the genealogy researched and complete - how silly and short-sighted of us! Just because there were roadblocks at certain points, all those we did have were waiting and could have been done. Luckily a little over a year ago I submitted several of my family names and have completed the work for those names. I grabbed the disk on Thursday that had the information on it that Charlie had put in PAF, expecting to take it to the Family History Center that night and put it through temple ready and get many names to take with me. I was horrified when the disk came up "corrupt and unreadable". I ransacked through his papers and found enough pieces of information to at least take those 5 names.

I have never met Charlie's grandfathers, they were deceased before we started dating, but I have heard a lot about them. His one grandfather, Soren Lura, played the cello and is the one who got him started on the cello. The other grandfather is who Charlie is named for. It gave me a little jolt hearing the words "Charles Granger Pruett". 

I have had the honor of knowing both of Charlie's grandmothers. Charlie was the first grandchild for both of them and he was an adored little boy!  Helga Amalie Westergaard Lura made the best Scandinavian crullers and encouraged Charlie's love of music. Maude Anna Bailey Pruett was always known to whistle and loved to say "Laws have mercy" and "Be still, be right still". I have a treasured four generation picture with each of them.

Charlie's father has been gone from us for about 8 years. Although not a member of our church, he was an avid genealogist and if I can find the information that he gave Charlie, I will probably have at least 1000 names to do work for. I am glad he lived long enough to hold his first great grandchild. 

Before leaving the temple, I spent a few minutes at the end of the bridge just looking at the large mural on the far wall. This is something Charlie always did when he left the temple at night; it was important to him. I wanted to try to look at it through his eyes and feel nearer to him. I miss him so much. 

Experiences

It's amazing how life can change from one day to the next. To one degree or another, we all have trauma and heartbreak in our lives. Some are caused by our own design, others through no fault of our own. Some come from nature. Others are manmade, some we don't suffer just as a person, but as a nation, such as 9/11. How we respond to these life-altering events can be a defining moment. No one who experiences such events is left unchanged. Some heartaches leave wounds that forever remain, even if they heal. 

     "The future depends on what we do in the present"

     - Mahatma Ghandi

This is especially true of our eternal future.