I stayed with my wonderful friend Amy Jo Stanford, and we spent wonderful moments in Park City shopping, having lunch, and soaking up the beauty of Utah in the fall. I hiked the hills behind Amy's house where everything was about roses. Rose Canyon is behind her home so everywhere there are rose streets or symbols. I gazed over the valley of Utah from so many different places and soaked in the beauty and clean crisp fall air. I took a side trip with my sister in law Suzanne over to visit her daughter Heather and her husband Greg and adorable Alex. We hiked in Ephraim another place of wonder.
I then returned to witness the most powerful moment I have ever experienced with a child of mine. As I was sitting in the Marriot Center both Thursday and Friday nights watching as a video was shared with Taylor and Bailee sharing moments from their journey since the night before the accident, seeing pictures of my beautiful Madeline Rose as Taylor's voice was in the background I had to stop and just soak in what was happening. People around me both nights were silent and tears were fresh as he spoke about his personal journey with losing our sweet Madie, and his fight to recover physically and heal emotionally as well. He then was able to sing a couple of songs with the Young Ambassadors as a soloist, and then Joined Nathan Pacheco and Rebecca Pederson who had just won the New York metropolitan Opera competition this year. It was a moment to remember as I saw my son do the most courageous thing with his sweet wife who has been such a great support to him and our family.
I am so grateful to all the friends who came out to support us and see the show, and experience this moment with our family. I will never forget Rachelle reaching over and patting my hand as my emotions surfaced and tears streamed down my face.
I wouldn't have ever asked for this journey that the last 10 and a half months has given to me and yet I can say that I am grateful to have learned so much about myself and others in a short time period.
As I am spending my last day in Utah today I felt I needed to go and find where Madie lived, and walk up to her apartment to just know where she spent her time while she was here. I woke early and walked about a mile and a half to where she lived, then walked across campus and just pondered on her last few months here in Provo. I remembered clearly visiting BYU 18 years ago when she was a year old for Education Week with Judy Yano. It was my first time to visit and stay at BYU. Even though I felt lost most of the time, I remember thinking this would be a great place for my kids to come and go to school. I loved the mountains and the beauty of everything. I remembered this morning how I felt it would be a safe place they could come. I thought about the irony of those thoughts but then realized that it was a safe place. My children that have come here have received a great education and had the privileged of also being in an environment where they could foster their spiritual development if they chose to do so. I realized it was here in Madie's Book of Mormon class that she felt strongly that she was being prepared to serve a mission. I am grateful that it impacted her the way it did so that she became someone who was ready to meet her Savior and Heavenly Father again. I miss her more than I could ever begin to explain, at times it takes my whole breath away and leaves me feeling so vulnerable, but I must say that I am grateful to know that her last months on earth were in such a beautiful place. I am grateful to have seen that her housing was so convenient to everything. She loved her time here, and I am grateful she got to live in the beautiful new dorms, with such a beautiful location.
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