We are a Blessed People, cont.

Whenever I get down, I just look across the street at Kent and Betty's house. Never have I seen two people try so hard to do what's right. To be faithful and compassionate, who are so Christ-like. I almost feel ashamed, because I can't keep going like they do. When we moved into our home, I think Kent and Betty were the first to visit and welcome us. We found out that our lives had kind of paralleled each others. Jim and Kent had been in the same army unit. I had been in the Mormon Youth Chorus with Kent and Betty. We lived in Logan across the street at the same time. Betty and I toured Europe the same summer. But we never met until they came to greet us. They had a beautiful nine month old boy, just Abby's age, he had blond, almost white hair and startlingly blue eyes. Kent and Betty had gone out into the world and rounded up their kids until Adam came along to complete their family. Kent was the Bishop for awhile and every child in the Ward loved him and Betty was always there supporting. Betty and I have sung beside each other in the choir forever. Mostly for my sake because Betty has perfect pitch and I just follow along, kind of like life. She rises to any occasion and smiles and gets things done, and I try to follow along. But because I don't have perfect ptich, Heavenly Father has placed Betty, with her perfect pitch (not just in music) right across the street from me. Isn't that just the greatest thing in the world, that I got to live right across the street from people who have blessed my life, just from watching their example?

One afternoon, it was snowing, I saw Nathan and Alisha drop off their sweet little girls for Betty to tend. They borrowed her car for a drive to Ogden. At 5:00 pm I was listening to the news just as Bishop Stout rang our doorbell to tell us that Nate and Alisha had been killed in a car accident. The world stopped. How could that fun-loving boy and his beautiful wife be gone from this earth? I ran over to Betty's to hug her and cry with her. I know that Kent and Betty's hearts were breaking. What can you do for someone with a broken heart? I guess the only thing we have to offer is our love and support. Kent and Betty are guardians of Nate and Alisha's two little girls. Again, they are raising two children who have just come to them, and again they put on a happy face and walk on together facing what has been put in their path. What faith, what love, they are so full of these gifts. I will never forget Nathan's dropping by our house with that great smile of his. I love their family. They should have patches randomly spaced throughout the quilt touching other's patches as they have touched all of our lives.