Things Change

It's funny how life can go along the same for years, looking like it will go that direction for ever, then suddenly everything changes. That's what happened to us during 2005 and 2006.

It all began in September, 2005, when mom and dad got a letter inviting them to attend a fireside about senior missionaries. They took it as a message from the Lord that they should go another mission.

“Mom,” I tried to reason, “they sent that letter to everyone in our stake. It doesn't mean the Lord wants you and dad to go.”

It didn't matter what I said. They felt like they had received a call and were determined to follow if the Lord needed them. Within a few short months Dad was released from his calling as Stake Patriarch, they had their mission papers ready to be submitted, and they were prepared to leave. I was in shock.

Then, in February, mom got really sick. Dad took her to the hospital, but they couldn't find what was wrong so they sent her home.

“Why don't you bring mom up to Snowflake?” my brother-in-law, Alan, suggested. He had a medical practice there, and was able to make arrangements for mom to have tests run the next day, whereas down in the Valley it would be weeks before she could even see a doctor. The tests showed that she had a leakage in her heart and needed to have surgery, so Dad brought her home and we checked her into the hospital on March first.

Then we waited. We might have the best hospitals and doctors in the world in the Phoenix area, but when they are full of sick people, red tape, and endless regulations and procedures, things don't happen very quickly. Mom waited in the hospital sixteen days before she finally had quadruple by-pass surgery, then she was there for another five days recovering. I spent my time running back and forth from the hospital, trying to relieve dad so he could get some rest, but he was so worried about mom it didn't help. Obviously, they weren't going on a mission, after all, but it was a good thing dad had been released from being Stake Patriarch, anyway, since he couldn't have continued giving blessings with mom so sick.

I'm afraid we all got pretty fed up with mom's medical care during this time. It wasn't that the doctors were incompetent, although sometimes it felt like it when they wasted literally days because orders were not given in a timely manner and tests were not made when they were scheduled.. Perhaps there were too many specialists, all focused on their own job, but it sure would have been nice to have one main doctor in charge, coordinating everything. That's not how big hospitals work, though. So we waited, and waited, and waited. At one point some of the family got so frustrated they got upset with the nurses. That made mom feel terrible. She knew the nurses were doing the best they could under the circumstances. I didn't know how to help, but I did know how to make cinnamon rolls, so I took some to the nurses with a card thanking them for all their hard work. That made mom feel better.

After she was finally released from the hospital, dad came over and had a long talk with me.

“Gale,” he said, “Alan thinks we ought to move up to Snowflake so he can take care of mom himself.”

I looked at dad in surprise, but didn't say anything. Surely he wasn't serious? He'd built our double house in Gilbert fifteen years earlier with the intention of living there forever. The house was on two acres, and dad had often talked about the possibility of having other members of the family build next to us when times got hard. This was supposed to be where we lived forever! We couldn't really move!

“I'm scared of loosing mother,” dad continued with a pleading look in his eye. “If we move next to Linda and Alan, I think I'll be able to keep her with me for at least another ten years. I just can't loose her yet.”

And with that, my whole world shifted and changed directions, never to be the same again.

Grandma and Grandpa's Cabin

          Grandma and Grandpa Russell built their cabin that first summer of 1958.  Since they already had the trailer, they decided to use it for the kitchen and just build one long living room in front of it with the door opening into the trailer.  Grandpa poured a large rectangle of cement for the foundation and floor.  The trailer wasn’t really very long, so he extended the front room about ten feet farther on the north side.  Grandpa poured a smaller square of cement on the side of the trailer behind the front extension.  It turned the large living room into a sort of L shape.  Grandma put a metal framed bed in that back part which became their bedroom, even though there wasn't a wall seperating it from the front room. 

            Grandma and Grandpa decided to build the lower part of the walls of their cabin out of rocks, there were plenty of them in the wash and creek bed close by.  They built the rock wall up about four feet, then used wood above that.  Inside the cabin the rocks were plastered over with cement. 

            The front wall of the cabin, facing the garden and the road, was built taller than the back wall which was even with the trailer.  Grandpa put a tin roof on top, slanting back so rain and snow could slide off.  My, what a noise it made when it rained! 

           Grandpa made two big windows on either side of the front door and one big window on the north side of the cabin, looking out towards the wash.  High up in the front wall he placed three smaller windows, one over each big window and one over the door.  These windows opened at the top and hung down on a chain.

            On the south side of the cabin Grandpa built a red brick fireplace with a mantle.  It had black grill work over vents above and on both sides of the fireplace so warm arm could circulate and blow out to heat the room.  On the right side of the fireplace a small door was built into the wall, so you could reach outside and get firewood or dump out ashes.

             Above the mantel Grandma put a picture of Fisherman's Point which one of their grandsons painted for them.  Fisherman's Point was a rocky cliff which towered many hundreds of feet high above the creek.  Some people called it Lover's Leap, and it was a beautiful, but scary sight.  Chamberlain Trail ran beside the point, then along the cliff for a ways.  The dirt road was only wide enough for one car to drive on, but what a view you had looking over the side way down to the creek far below.  Mom always closed her eyes as they drove over that part of the road, while Dad had a hard time keeping his eyes on the trail instead of looking out at the view.

            Grandma and Grandpa brought up an old couch they owned and placed it on the back wall of the front room.  Grandpa's brother gave them a bear skin which they laid over the back of the couch.  It had black, wiry hair and sharp, yellowed claws on it's paws.  It's eyes had been replaced with black, glass marbles, but it still had it's own sharp, scary teeth.

            Grandma brought up her old treadle sewing machine, which she placed next to an easy chair under the south front window.  She spent many days sewing on that old machine, or sitting in the chair braiding colorful rags together which she sewed into round rugs to cover the hard cement floor.  Grandma also made a foot stool from five grape juice cans that she glued together, then covered with material.  It looked like a big flower when it was finished.

            Grandma and Grandpa brought up a wooden table and chairs that sat under the north front window.  They kept a big, green, glass kerosene lamp in the middle of that table, and every night Grandma would light it so they could see to read or play scrabble.  They also hung two kerosene lamps from the ceiling to light the rest of the cabin. 

            That cabin took a lot of work, but when it was finished, man, it was wonderful!  Now Grandma and Grandpa could live comfortably in the mountains from early spring to late fall.  Soon Uncle Tillis, Grandpa Russell’s brother, built a little white cabin on the other side of the garden, so he and Aunt Cleo could spend their time up there, too.  Together, he and Grandpa planted apple and pear trees by the driveway that ran along the base of the hill.  Grandma planted hollyhocks along the drive and Aunt Cleo planted a lilac bush next to her cabin.

            The final touch Grandpa and Grandma Russell placed on their new summer home was a green and white metal sign they bought special to put on a fence post by the road.  It said ‘El Rosel’, which meant 'the Russell’s'.