No Monday Hero

Today I am foregoing Monday's heroes because it is Clyde's and my 36th wedding anniversary. Wow! Has it been that long? A little over 37 years ago I was flying home to Germany and all the way from the airport, Marianne was telling me about this 'guy named Clyde'. She wanted me to promise I would leave him alone. I didn't promise but assured her I wouldn't be interested in anyone named Clyde. Ten days later that 'guy named Clyde' and I were engaged. To balance it out we were engaged for a year for many reasons - the biggest one being he was a recent convert to the Church and couldn't take me to the temple for another year. I know for a fact if we had not married in the temple we would not be married today. Those covenants are what kept us going. To return to the temple over and over and basically relive my wedding day any time I want has been the greatest blessing of my life. There are some aspects of my wedding day I am grateful I have not had to live over and over though.

Because we were married on the 29th of December - in those days the temples shut down for Christmas. Clyde and I had gone to the Provo Temple the day before. I will not go into detail here but to give you an inkling I was number 202 on the brides list for that day and I got there at 7:00 in ther morning. There were 25 people to a locker! It was wild. The next day it was blizzard conditions in Manti and people could not get there. The roads were freezing and it was treacherous. The Manti Temple is at the top of a hill. Dad and Clyde dropped me off and I actually slid under the car the roads was so slick - great start to the day. Clyde grabbed me as was literally half way under the car. We got into the temple. The temple president and his wife with a handful of people that could walk from Manti were the only people in the temple. It was literally just our family. The Stake President and the Temple President had both been inspired to tell us to do a session before we were sealed. After the fiasco of the day before I am not sure we would have ever attended the temple again. But to do a session literally with just the family is a memory I will always cherish. My Aunt Lou was with me and had been an Ordinance Worker in the Manti Temple for many years before moving to Salt Lake and becoming an Ordinance Worker in the Salt Lake Temple. I think because there were so few of us and I was the only bride I ended up with 3 escorts - Mom, Grandma Tuttle and Aunt Lou. They were all three whispering things in my ear all through the session about the Manti Temple and about the session itself. I learned so much that day. I am still grateful for the lessons I had that day.

My Grandfather was supposed to be a witness at my wedding but he never got there. Instead my old bishop - Ferrin Mangleson was the other witness with my father. I had been quite close to him so that was nice. Very few people got to my actual sealing but it was still special. When Clyde and I exchanged rings, I had to give him my father's ring. His ring was still coming from Virginia (it didn't arrive for another week and he lost it 4 years later).

Our reception is still talked about. When we moved back to Ephraim 25 years after we were married, people would come up to Clyde and introduce themselves with the preface, "I was at your reception. I remember it because we couldn't leave after we got there." That was true. People arrived early in fact in hopes that they would beat the storm and ended up staying until after midnight when the storm finally broke. It was an interesting reception because there were not all that many people there but none of us could go anywhere. There was an area with elderly people having a great time. There was another area with people Mom and Dad's age and then there was another area with my friends. We might have had 100 people there and they ate enough food for 300 because they were trapped. It was quite the party. We really did have a good time. Because of the snow storm, Clyde and I could not go to Salt Lake for the first night of our honeymoon. We ended up staying at the only hotel in Ephraim at the time. We were surrounded by everyone from our wedding that was stranded in Ephraim and the walls were thin. It made for an interesting evening. One of my bridesmaids would bang on the wall periodically during the night and yell, "Hey, what is going on in there!" When I saw her later I pretended I hadn't heard her so she would never do anything like that again. I told her maybe she was keeping someone else awake.

Clyde and I have had our ups and downs. Fortunately there have been far more ups than downs. We have been comitted to the marriage and for the most part worked hard to make it work. The last few years have been the pay-off. We currently have 9 of the most beautiful grandchildren that anyone has every been blessed with. I always knew that I had 4 of the most beautiful daughters in the world (my sister also has 4 beautiful daughters that are like my daughters so there are 8 of the most beautiful daughters in the world right there). When our daughters started giving us grandchildren I have been startled every time by their beauty and wonderful personalities. All I can say as I start this New Year is that I am one of the most blessed women on the planet.

I need to also point out that our oldest daughter did the sweetest thing for us on our anniversary. She gave us our first grandchild - Carlye Anne - who turns 8 today. Happy Birthday Carlye!