My Grandma passed away on the morning of January 10th. That was the same morning that our embryos were being transferred. Before Lee and I left for California, we stopped by my Grandma's to say goodbye, not knowing for sure if she would be here when we got back. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in July and at the point of diagnosis it had already spread to her lungs, so we knew her time left on this earth was limited. I was hoping I would get the chance to tell her I was pregnant (if it worked....we still don't know). She told me that she couldn't think of a more deserving person than I to become a Mother and that she wished that she could have met our baby. Those words mean so much to me, and I have no doubt that if these procedures are successful for us, she had a hand in sending that sweet spirit to us. I love my Grandma so much and she truly was an angel.
My cousin Sarah had typed up a life sketch of Grandma on her blog, so I copied this. A lot of this was used at the funeral, which was a very beautiful service. It is kind of long, but I wanted record of it.
Lenore Delane Brady Nielsen
Born in Duchesne, Utah
Baptized August 1932 in Duchesne, Utah
Sealed to Grandpa and children April 17, 1964 in the Temple
Children are (from oldest to youngest)...Kenneth Loren, James Glenn, Gary Lynn, Micheal Dean, Mark Douglas, Stillborn Baby, Jay Dee, and Kathy (Sessions) .
Some of her earliest childhood memories are..."One of my earliest memories was when we were living up Antelope Canyon. Grandpa Brady (her father) was farming a small farm. I got up one morning, went out to the outhouse. Just before I sat down I looked behind me, all curled up was a big old rattlesnake. I hit the door and ran and told my Dad. When we got back there it was on the floor. They thought that it had struck, but I don't know. Grandpa killed it, he held it up by the tail. The length of it was from the ground up to about the middle of Grandpa's chest. I don't know if I remember right but they said it had 15 rattles on it."
"Another time up Antelope Canyon I was sitting in a little wagon by the fire. Grandpa and his brothers were butchering a pig or sheep or something. Anyway, I was swinging my feet back and forth and my pants caught on fire. Uncle Orion grabbed me and started running. Then they started throwing dirt on it to put out the fire. All I can remember is Uncle Orion picking me up and running."
"As a child we lived in Duchesne, Utah and Bridgeland. We went to Oregon one summer for Grandpa to find work, but we came back, that is when we found Pleasant Grove, Utah. I have lived in Pleasant Grove the rest of my life, except for about five years I lived in Salt Lake City (Utah). "
"I started school in Duchesne. [When] we moved to Bridgeland I rode the bus to Duchesne, then I went to Myton for a couple of years. I went to Central School in Pleasant Grove and Pleasant Grove High."
Here are some favorite memories of her mom and dad..."My Mother was very quite and soft spoken. I can't remember her ever yelling at us kids. She said something once and just the way she looked at us we would usually do what we were asked to do. My Mother was sick a lot, she had a bad heart and asthma. I can remember hearing her breath in the night. Mom would take us to the sheep camp to visit with Dad. He was a sheep herder and was gone a lot."
"My Dad was a very kind hearted man. The only time I can remember him getting mad was one time he was killing some chickens for dinner and the cat keeping trying to get the chickens and he hit it with a hammer. Grandpa never complained. When he was living with me (when he was in his 90's) he would get up every morning and sing the song 'Count Your (Many) Blessing.' When he would say his prayers he would name all the widows and widowers in the ward by name to be blessed. He was blind for about 15 years of his life. When I would go down to the care center to see him, I would put him in the wheel chair, and take him for a ride. He would start to sing and would sing from one end of the hall to the other. All of the patients would come out of their rooms to see who was singing. At 100 he still had a pretty good voice."
Some teenage memories..."We really walked a lot. We would walk down town buy a seven up or a ice cream cone and walk back home. For fun we played a lot of games. Card game in the house, I can't remember the names of them. At night we would play 'Run Sheep Run,' 'Hide and Seek,' and 'Fox and Geese,' I can't remember the names of others. And on Saturday we would go to the afternoon movies. We had a neighbor who ran the movie theater. He would give us free tickets. We had school ball games and Mutual on Tuesday night. We liked to listen to the radio stories, 'The Lone Ranger,' mysteries, 'The Shadow Knows.' They were series, they would come on every week at the same time."
Spiritual Experiences..."I was baptized in the Duchesne River. I don't have a baptism certificate but on the records it says I was baptized on August 6, 1932. I can't remember much. I can remember the water was cold. I can remember Grandma wrapping me in a towel. I think it was on a Saturday because I was confirmed the next day."
"The day we were Sealed was April 17, 1964. It was a very special day but I was so scared. I wanted the kids to look nice. I made Kathy a little white dress. I don't know why people get so frightened when they first go to the temple but they do, ask your mom. Grandma and Grandpa Brady were with us and Uncle Doug and Joyce, [and other] family and ward members. I can't remember to much of what was said but I can remember six little boys and one little girl around the alter together with us. Then we went down to Kentucky Fried Chicken and had lunch."
College and jobs..."I didn't go to college. I wish I had. The jobs I had was working as a waitress and that is hard work. They didn't use to tip like they do now so we didn't make much money. So go to college and study hard. It was fun being a mom but I would have been a better one if I had had more schooling. I worked in school lunch. I started to work when Kenneth went on his mission. The first place I worked on school lunch was in the same building that your Dad works in now (now the old Pleasant Grove Rec Center). Then I moved to the Pleasant Grove Jr. High, where it is now. I worked in the Kentucky Fried Chicken place in Salt Lake for a little while.
Pearl Harbor and the war..."When Pearl Harbor was bombed I was walking down main street in Salt Lake. I was on the corner of 2nd South and Main. The newspaper boys were shouting about it. There was a big electric sign on the building, "Pearl Harbor Bombed." [During the war] I worked at Remington Arms Ammunition Plant. I inspected 45 mm bullets, I think it was 45 mm. And I worked at Hill Airforce Base in packing and shipping. We packed and shipped all kinds of equipment and supplies to the Armed Forces. We also worked with P.O.W. from France and Germany. There was armed guards around all the time and service men who interpreted the language for us." (My mom has told me about a picture of Grandma driving a fork lift but I haven't ever seen it)
Favorite and Hardest Parts of Being a Mom..."I loved being a mom. Sometimes I didn't do very good but I tried. We had lots of ups and downs like anyone else. I liked to go to their baseball games and I enjoyed working with them on their scouting projects. I was a Den Mother or Primary teacher with all of my boys except Jay Dee and Mark. I always taught boys in Primary. They put me in a girls class once and I went home crying about every week, they were so nasty. I think it was easier having boys than girls. If all of the girls were as nice as my granddaughters maybe I would have like teaching them better." (I also remember hearing a story about her tying one of the boys suspenders to the clothes line while she did laundry so that he could only go so far and she could keep an eye on him without him wander away. Well she turned around to hang up some clothes and the next thing she knows there are only a pair of pants tied to the line, with no little boy in them.)
Fun Family Vacations..."The vacations we took were always camping. We would go to the Uintas, Moon Lake, Mirror Lake, Fish Lake. We went to Lake Powell with Mike and Trudy when Kindra and Shelly were little. We went to Yellowstone one time and the weather was bad so we rented an old cabin. It was terrible, mice all over the place and it was dirty but the boys had fun climbing trees and fighting. Your Dad and Grandpa had a couple of trips to Yellowstone to snowmobile. We had fun when we had the boat. Jay Dee had fun water skiing and it was fun to go fishing in the boat. Your Dad can tell you about some of his water skiing trips to Deer Creek with his rowdy friends."
Meeting Grandpa..."I met Grandpa at a dance at Provo. I danced with him a couple of time then my girlfriends and I left. The next week he was there and I danced with him again. He asked if he could take me home. I told him no because I was there with my girlfriends. I knew who he was because I went to school with his sister. I started going out with him about July 1947. Grandpa was kind of shy. He was always good to me. He always helped with dishes. He helped with cooking and cleaning the house and taking care of the babies. The only thing he didn't like to do was iron. He was a hard worker."
Hobbies..."Grandma Brady taught me how to chain stitch and the basics [of crocheting]. I just picked up the rest in Relief Society. I really don't do very good like some ladies I know but I enjoy doing it and it keeps me from going to sleep while I watch TV. I like to read. I never had the time to read while I was raising the kids. I like to go to bed and read."
Other Memories..."This story taught me a lot about stealing, punishment, and kindness, and forgiveness. I think I was about 6 or 7 years old. We lived in Bridgeland and that is all that it was, a bridge and one little store. There was five or six other families in the area. Anyway, it was the 4th of July and all the neighbors went to Duchesne to celebrate, except Archie and me and a couple of the Beal kids and a couple of the Hamilton kids. Uncle Eldon had closed the store and went to Duchesne. So the older boys decided to have some fun. They broke into the side of the store where a window lifted up. They crawled in and handed out candy to the rest of us. That is all they took was candy. We all hurried and ran to a patch of tree on the way home. Pretty soon we heard horses coming. We all got caught. Dad took Archie and me. We started for home scared to death. Mr. Beal asked Dad to stop at his place on the way home. He did. Mr. Beal took off his belt and first he whipped the oldest boy then the next one and finally he whip the girl the same age as I was. Daddy made us watch. Mr. Beal ask him if his kids needed whipping. Dad just said, "I think they have been punished enough," and took us home. I can still see that belt hitting those kids. It was bad. We got a good talking to when we got home. The funny part is we didn't eat any of the candy."
I loved my Grandma so much and will miss her dearly. Here are a few things I will always remember...
She used to always say "oh forever more" or "fiddlesticks".
She never complained about anything and was always such a joy to sit and visit with.
I loved all the years of camping with her and Grandpa and will never forget hearing her smoke alarm in her trailer go off every morning as she cooked breakfast.
She hated snakes!
She loved to garden
She had quite a few blonde moments. One time while we were camping, we were playing Scattergories. The letter was "S" and the topic was "Things you throw away". Well, Grandma wrote down "lightbulb", and when we told her she had to use and "S" she laughed and said, "well, you throw lightbulbs away". We all had a laugh over that.
There are so many other things I will remember about my Grandma, and I will miss her dearly. I'm so thankful for the knowledge I have of Eternal Families so that I can see her again.
My mom knew I was taking the test early and was expecting a phone call around 7:30. When I hadn't called yet, she started to get really nervous thinking that it didn't work and I was sitting in the car crying because I was upset and didn't want to call. Well, She was wrong! We walked into her office around 8:00 with her key chain and a balloon, and as you can see by the picture, she was happy. She was screaming and crying and hugging me so tight! It was so great to be able to tell her and to see her reaction.
That night after I got home from work, I gave Lee this small gift. It's a Detroit Redwings onesie, bib and booties. He has made it clear that this baby will be a Redwings and Lions fan, and that no matter if it's a boy or a girl we are bringing that baby home in this jersey. It's to bad that won't be happening now.
