January 13, 1989
My New Year’s resolution this year is to finish my history complete and get it re-typed during these cold January and February days, so I must get started.
Last December 24, I celebrated my 79th birthday. Next year I will be 80, although hard to believe. Do I feel old, ancient, and decrepit? No, I don’t. Not quite the 24 years that I felt just a year ago or so, but growing old is a strange feeling. I have been so healthy all my life, with no operations, no terrible illnesses or accidents (except for a broken wrist at Christmas time years ago) that it was a great shock last April to go to the diabetes specialist to see how my blood sugar was doing. I hadn’t had it checked for three or four years. He ended up saying he didn’t think I had diabetes, but he picked up several other problems…mainly that he thought I had heart problems. It developed that my heart is fine, but cholesterol has clogged up some of my arteries. I went to a heart specialist who put me on a treadmill and then felt I should have an angiogram.
This was frightening to me, but many of my friends said it was ‘nothing.’ And it actually wasn’t painful. I stretched out on the table and watched on the monitor at what looked like a pencil with a small feather at the end, switched (swished?) around my ‘bod’ and after about 15 minutes it was over. Except my blood pressure shot up, probably from tension, and the doctor couldn’t stop the bleeding for quite some time. Finally did and put the sandbags on my groin and sent me to a room upstairs in the hospital. There I was fine for an hour or so and then I got the feeling I was passing out. I called for the nurse and six of them rushed into the room and started working on me. The doctor came and reassured me I was going to be okay, and I was, but for a week was very weak.
And I went through several months of feeling ‘rotten’ having no energy and in general feeling pretty sorry for myself. I am on medication and hope that it is clearing my arteries. Also, I’m on a diet of chicken, fish, veggies, fruit and, of course, oat bran. I’m feeling much better and while I have days that I’m not full of vim and vigor, I’m really doing fine.
I’m still on the board of the Women’s Division of the Chamber of Commerce, on the board of the Provo Arts Council, teaching Home and Family lessons in Relief Society and taking time to dash to Orem to see my beloved great-grandchildren, Cory 7, Kelly almost 3, and darling Kimberly who turned one year on January 5.
We were all in California for the Holidays and had a wonderful time, but all things come to an end and now I’m back in snowy Provo, where we were inundated with the white stuff.
While we were in California, Marilyn was gone every night for the part of Golde in ‘Fiddler on the Roof.’ at Candlelight Dinner Theatre.
Steve had scads of business and we all pitched in to help. I spent New Year’s Eve at a huge tent by the Rose Bowl helping to make bouquets from leftover flowers from the floats which they said Steve could have for 200 tables. Steve was feeding 1,700 people buffet along with another 300 VIPS for a sit-down hot lunch the next day between the parade and the game. He was also feeding the Queen & court, the Grand Marshall and the top Tournament people breakfast at the Tournament House earlier. Steve and his crew were up all night until late the next afternoon. I don’t know how anyone could ever accomplish all that, but he does it week after week.
New Year’s morning, we drug ourselves out of bed early and Steve’s whole family and Donna and I went to seats on the bleachers. Steve had bought tickets so that we could see Jennifer along with the Arcadia Royalty as they rode on the Arcadia Float in the Rose Parade.
The next week we went with Michelle to the L.A. Temple or her endowments. We went to Elizabeth’s baptism on Wednesday evening in their Ward and this was a lovely meeting with good talks by Quinn and their bishop’s wife and music by all the cousins, etc. Thursday was Michelle’s wedding and that night I went to the dress rehearsal of Fiddler on the Roof and it was great. Marilyn is really good in it. Friday night was Michelle and Lance’s wedding reception at the beautiful Grand in Glendora. Michelle married Lance Rich whose dad, Lance, Sr. had been one of Steve’s best friends all through high school and after. The reception was beautiful, as it always is in The Grand, but Michelle got awfully sick to her stomach just before the bridal party was to come in and seat themselves at the head table. Finally all the others in the bridal party came in and took their places and after a delicious dinner they started the program and Michelle who had been given a blessing by Steve, came in and felt quite good and took part in the rest of the reception.
On Saturday morning, we all met at the pancake house to celebrate Marilyn’s birthday, January 6, 1989 because Mark and I were leaving for Provo and Marilyn had a matinee and evening performances. She is in the show until the first of April.
Today is one of the milestones in the United States history because at 12;00 in Washington, DC, George Bush, Sr. was inaugurated as the new President of the United States and after all the hoopla was over ex-President Ronald Reagan and Nancy took a helicopter to Andrews Air Force base and took off to Fly to California and retirement. The news media have been saying today that President Reagan left office the best liked president since Roosevelt. This was interesting because I have felt that the news media had done everything possible to discount both the President and Nancy, some even vicious in their attack. He did make some mistakes, but he didn’t begin a Vietnam, or Bay of Pigs disasters a couple of other Presidents had and I felt that he did many very find things for the country. We are at the moment much more prosperous, inflation is down, and we have begun meaningful talks with Russia’s Gorbachof, etc. In years to come I want you to know that Reagan gave a speech at the Berlin Wall asking Gorbachof to ‘tear down this wall!’ to the cheers of the thousands assembled there.
I was impressed with President Bush’s speech after he was sworn in. He said only a few words before he asked everyone to bow their heads as he said a prayer. Interestingly enough, so many people out of our Church begin their prayers with “Oh God”, and he said “Our Heavenly Father.” Quite interesting. His most fervent promise to the people was the war on drugs which he said he would abolish. Mrs. Bush seems far different from Nancy. She is gray-haired, says she doesn’t wear designer clothes and that people will have to take her as she is. I think she has endeared herself greatly to the American people by this.
It will be interesting in the four years to come to see what happens to Vice-President Quale. He has come in for severe criticism (and if you great-great-great grandchildren happen to read this, you should get to your history books and see what happened.) So far, it seems that his greatest claim to fame, according to the media, is that he looks like Robert Redford. Actually, Redford is getting pretty wrinkled and old looking and I think Quale is much handsomer. Auntie Donna loves Robert Redford and I can hear her saying…”What do you know!”
It is one of the wonders of the age that I could sit at my sewing machine this morning mending slacks, etc., and watch all the proceedings of the Inauguration in color. Everything is so different than when I was a child, but I’m thankful to have lived through the end of the ‘horse and buggy’ age into the automobile, flying machine, modern jets, a man on the moon and computers. I’ve said often that the only reason I would like to live ten more is to see what happens in the wonderful world of computers.