Letter from Grandpa Marchant

This is a letter that Grandpa Marchant wrote Barbara in April 1956.  Grandma Marchant died in October of that year.  Grandma lived in Ephraim with Aunt Linnie prior to her death and may have been there at that time.  It seems that Grandma Marchant spent some time at the Utah State Mental Hospital but Barbara doesn't know exactly why, when, or how long.  Grandpa Marchant died in May 1957, a little over a year after writing this letter. 

Unshared

Did you ever waken in the night
And find your thoughts like flowers
Suddenly in bloom?

The lovely things you've yearned to share
Like roses climbing on a wall,
Might finally scale the barrier that breaks communication
With those you hold most dear.

Then morning comes.
The time is never right.
They are not listening.
The clumsiness of language binds your tongue.
The careful words you fashioned in the night
Would sound silly to them now.

One by one the petals fall away;
The fragrance disappears.
It was lovely while it lasted,
But it was never shared.
The bloom is gone.
You shed a silent tear.

Is it forever lost?
Did it bloom in vain?

Remember, it did blossom,
And where a flower grows--
Seeds follow.

Another time
Maybe
You'll be more aware of them:
Their finer qualities,
Their needs,
The tender spots that they protect by rough exterier shells.

And sometime--
Sometime--maybe,
They might want to share

Lydia T. M. Sorensen (no date)

May I share this with you?
With love,
Mother

I do not remember receiving this. It was in an envelope with my name on it. It was probably directed towards me although not necessarily as I think Mama felt this way about Daddy and perhaps some of the other kids as well. There were times in my teenage years she would write notes to me instead of talking to me because I wouldn't listen. I didn't particularly appreciate the notes at that time. Also, she could have written it while I was in the midst of my troubled marriage or the adjustments and difficulties following the divorce.
Barbara

Playing with the numbers

I was just reading about Joseph Fielding Smith while simultaneously thinking of how my grandmother, Agnes Taylor and her siblings were taken in by him and his wife Mary Schwartz (who was the half-sister of my grandmother's mother). Mary's mother (therefore my grandmother's grandmother) Agnes Taylor Schwartz also lived there. She is the sister of John Taylor. Mary Schwartz was Joseph Fielding Smith's 6th wife. She was born in 1865, the year before Joseph Fielding Smith became an apostle at the age of 28. They were married in 1884.

Anyway, back to my grandmother. She was three when her father died and so probably did not remember him. Joseph Fielding Smith was six when his father died and never forgot the events surrounding his father's death. Grandmother was fifteen when she was orphaned, Joseph Fielding Smith was thirteen when he was orphaned. He probably had a lot of sympathy for Grandmother and her siblings, because of the extra dimension of having suffered the same losses at roughly similar ages.

Ross and Linnie Findlay

Neither of these are dated. I think the second one was taken at one of Don's son's weddings but I could be wrong about that.

Marchant Family Reunion, American Legion Hall, Manti. Utah 1972

The in age order: Lydia 61, Emily 58, Ruth 55, and Linnie 53

The group unidentified.Same picture with all but three of the people identified. You have to double click on the picture to get it to enlarge enough to read the identifications. With the exception of Willis Lowry (to differentiate from Willis Sorensen), I have not put last names as some of the people are still living and it gives them a measure of privacy. If you can identify the three not identified, email me and I'll update this post.

David MMorrillen Wilkerson's Obituary

Emily's Funeral Program

Cover for the Funeral Program