Dear Friends and Relatives:
Just a short greeting to go with my cards. In many ways it has been a good year, and in others, there have been heartaches.
January, February and March went by in a flurry of the usual activities, with a tour to Southern California with the SOUNDS OF FREEDOM in March. While we were there, the groups appeared on the All American College Show and won first place. This necessitated a return trip in May for the semi-finals, where they weren’t so lucky, but they had a good time
Three days after we returned I received a call that our sweet Matthew, Steve and Cheryl’s son, had been killed in an accident. Of course I flew down as soon as I could get a plane. This was heartbreaking for all the family, but, of course, more so for Steve and Cheryl and their little Jana, who was four in August. Matthew was buried on his second birthday. We are now happy that Cheryl is pregnant and whether it is a girl or boy, we know it help to ease their loss.
June was mostly taken up with June Conference and a day after that I drove to Los Angeles and my sister Donna and I took a plane for Honolulu and spent eleven days on the various islands. There was a heat wave all over Hawaii while we were there so we spend much of our time in air-cooled hotels. We enjoyed the Polynesian Cultural Center tremendously, and seeing the Temple, etc. We also enjoyed Kauai, the Garden Island, but rather wished that we had returned home before we went to Maui and Hawaii–both of which weren’t as interesting, and it was still hot. However, it was an interesting vacation. I know that doesn’t sound very enthusiastic about the Islands, but that is the way we both feel. (Marilyn: When they got their rental car, Mother didn’t want to get accident insurance, but Donna insisted and paid for it and a good thing because they had an accident. That may have colored how they felt about their trip.)
From about this time on I didn’t feel good physically–perhaps the aftermath of a very hectic year on campus and all of the other things which happened. Anyway, the rest of the summer I spent either on the road to California and back, or moping around Provo. I feel fine now.
With September began the usual day and night activities that make up my life and make it very interesting and challenging. For the MIA I traveled to Detroit, Las Vegas, and several other places closer to home for Regional Conferences, last winter and summer, but since I will be gone for two months or more this Winter, they are not sending me on Conferences, which was a great relief with everything else I have to do.
The reason for my being gone is very exciting. On February 2, I leave for the Far East with 14 members of the SOUNDS for a Department of Defense and USO tour. I can’t believe yet that it is true. We will fly to Tokyo and get our travel orders from there. The USO is also sending Janie Thompson and 14 more students to the same area, but at different places at different times. At the end of the tour we will meet at Osaka, Japan and combine to do two appearances a day at Expo 70 for a week. This will put a climax to the tour and should be very interesting.
Meantime, plans for Christmas go on. Steve, Joan and Linda and their families will be here for Christmas. We are happy that Linda is expecting again. This means that we will add two precious grandchildren to the family next year. Otherwise my family is much the same as a year ago now.
There is much more I could add, but I promised to keep this short, so I shall and by saying that in many ways I have been greatly blessed this year, as always.
Love Klea