A Day In The Life - 8/28: A Sad Reunion

These are the program photos from the funeral of Vivian Meese. Her husband, Bob, was one of my Scouting leaders and later, my bishop. I grew up with Curtis, Eric and Kim. Allan was a fair amount older.
Vivian was always our model for how a lady should dress and act, a beautiful lady in every way.
You begin to realize, when you attend a funeral, that you are connected to many people in your life in ways that perhaps had not been evident before. Sometimes you find that the person who has passed through the veil to eternal life has touched not only you but all who are in attendance. Sometimes the family has also made a difference in your life. The great thing, in spite of the sadness of the occasion, is that this important even draws us together again. It reminds us of happier times. It reminds me of lofty aspirations we once had that reality has quashed a little. It puts me in a situation where I can rejoice in other people's successes in life and enjoy the activities that they are involved in and who they have become. And I have been blessed to have know many people who have become great adults.
Today was one of those days. As we celebrated the life of Vivian Meese and the wonderful person that she has become, her family expressed their wonderful memories of her and her family. I was gathered with so many of the people that I knew as a youngster - some who were my companions in crime and others who were my Scout leaders, my church leaders and my examples.
I discovered that many of my former compadres have become camera-shy. Others have become super-heroes and rush around at blinding speed so that a camera lens is is hardly fast enough to catch their blinding speed. But I did manage to capture some of the group who are beginning to slow down to more manageable speeds.
These three speedsters managed to allow themselves to be caught as they zoomed through the parking lot. From left to right: Anthony Goodman, Curtis Meese and Kenny Slade.






These three lovely ladies were part of the clan that we just enough younger in age as we were growing up to be the targets for teasing by the wild boys that I hung out with. And the ladies are:
Shirley (Slade) Brown
Debbie (Davis) Hurst
Allyson (Echols) Morris




Randy McIff has been tied to us for many years both through the church as well as through Scouting. We both seem to bump into each other at many Scouting events or multi-stake events in the Mesa area.












Lillian (Goldstein) White, standing next to Shirley Brown, was so much fun when we were growing up. I do remember snagging the keys to her car on Sunday when we were bored during church and going for a joy ride in her car. We were in hot water with her for a while after that prank.











John Dorman and his wonderful wife, Eloise. I just can't express all the neat memories I have of those two wonderful people. Sister Dorman was Family History personified as I was growing up. If there was anything to be known about how to do Family History, she was the person to go to.
John seemed to be involved in Scouting at all of the right times. I got to have him as a leader when I was an Explorer scout. Those were some great times.
Later, John came to our rescue when we discovered that the house we had been living in was completely eaten up by termites. I guess you could say, in the vernacular of the day, "our house was lunch." Although we had pest coverage and probably could have gotten a settlement through the courts, which would probably have taken years and years to resolve, John provided another option. He worked for a man who bought properties and fixed them up and resold them for a profit. Hopefully for a profit. John worked it out so that his employer would buy our house from us for what we owed on it. We lost some equity but we lost neither time nor additional monies on a house that we could not live in or sell. Gaye and I still talk about what a blessing John was in our lives at that time.