Daisy

"It was my daughters, mostly, who told me I should get married." 

I was sitting across the table from my sweet, elderly neighbor, Daisy.  She was telling me her life story. 

"You see," Daisy explained, "my first husband stepped out on me when my girls were little.  He wanted me to divorce him so he could marry this other woman, but I told him no.  After all, we'd been married in the Temple, and I'd promised to love him for eternity."

"One day, though, my husband came and told me his girlfriend was going to have a baby, and he asked me again to give him a divorce so he could marry her.  Under those circumstances, I finally decided I should give in.  But after the baby was born things didn't work out so well.  My ex-husband's new wife was an awful mother, and eventually he came to me and asked if I would take their little boy and raise him the right way, so I did.  I raised him like he was my son, and he's turned out to be a fine boy.  In fact, he's serving as a Bishop out east of town now."

"Anyway, I was single for a long time, until all of my kids were grown.  I worked at the drugstore down on Main Street.  Over the years I got to know a man who came in to eat there every day.  He was really nice, such a gentleman, and he began wanting to date me, but he wasn't a member of the church, so I put him off.  But he persisted, and finally my girls got involved and told me they thought I should marry him, he really was a fine man."

"In the end I did, and I he was always very good to me.  At first he was interested in the Church, and started taking the missionary lessons and talking about getting baptized.  Then one day our home teachers came to visit.  I'm sure they didn't mean to offend my husband, but they sure did.  They told him even though we were married, I was going to belong to my first husband after we died because we had been sealed in the Temple."

"What?" I exclaimed in surprise.  "That's not true!  You're first husband lost the right to be married to you as soon as he broke his covenants."

"I know," Daisy sighed, "but that's what they said, anyway, and they made my husband so angry he ordered them out of our house and refused to have anything to do with the Church from then on."

"Oh, I'm sorry Daisy," I commiserated.  "Sometimes people really mess things up, don't they?  Especially 'holier than thou', arrogant men who think they know what they are talking about when they don't."

"I know," Daisy smiled sadly.  "Like I said, I don't suppose they really meant to offend my husband.  They were probably trying to coax him into getting baptized so he could take me to the Temple and we could be sealed ourselves, or something.  Anyway, I understand and am not mad at them, but that's why I was inactive for the last five years, until my husband passed away."



"Since my husband had a ranch up in Montana, we spent most of our time up there, only coming down to Arizona for a few months in the winter.  Then, he passed away last spring, and I stayed up there with his family for awhile.  It's nice to be back home, now, though."

I thought it was nice to have Daisy here, too.  She was a sweet friend and neighbor, and the kids and I enjoyed visiting with her and taking goodies over to her every now and then. 

One day, a few months later, the kids and I got home from school late in the afternoon as usual.  It was a lovely, spring day, so I hurried and took advantage of the warm weather by pulling my hose out to the front yard to water my flowers.  I saw Daisy come out of her back door, and called a hello to her over our dividing hedge.

"Oh, Gale, I'm so glad to see you," Daisy called out happily, walking over to the hedge.  "I've just had the most wonderful experience!"

I hurried over to hear her good news.

"This week was the one-year anniversary of my husband's death," she began. "I made arrangements for my foster-son to come with me to the temple so he could be baptized for my husband, and we could be sealed vicariously.  It was wonderful!  Then, the most amazing thing happened today."

Daisy was beaming, and I looked fondly on this spry, eighty-something year-old neighbor of mine.  "I've been trying to find the names of my husband's family so we could take them to the temple and do the work for them, but I haven't been able to get past his own parents.  But suddenly, today, I was able to find his grandparent's names and information, and that opened the door to all the rest of his genealogy.  Now, we can take all of his family names to the temple and we can all be sealed together.  I just know that somewhere up there in heaven, someone has been teaching the Gospel to my husband, and now that he is able to see the whole picture and get over that stupid stuff those men told him years ago, he has accepted it and is helping me from the other side of the veil to find the rest of his family!"

"I betcha you're right," I grinned at Daisy, happy that she finally had her dreams come true.  "It's a good thing Heavenly Father is in control, isn't it, and he can make up for the foolish things people do down here."

That night I thanked Heavenly Father in my prayers for giving Daisy's husband a chance to hear the true Gospel on the other side of the veil, and for the blessing of Temple work, so Daisy would get to live happily ever after with her true love.   I also prayed, again, that I would be able to find my true love and have that same opportunity some day, only I really hoped I wouldn't have to wait until after I died to get my chance.