Tuesday, JULY 4, 2000. It’s a great holiday!
I LO-O-O-O-O-O-VE this country of ours. It’s the greatest in the history of the whole world! And the times we live in are also the greatest in the history of the whole world. And we live in the very center of a population that worships God as no other people ever have. We have a wonderful prophet and apostles to lead us where our national leaders don’t even tread. This church has almost 11,000,000 members now; when Jeannie joined it 32 years ago there were about 1,000,000 members. I joined four years later, just before Woody was born.
We have freedoms that I cherish with all my heart:
- Freedom to worship God as we see fit
- Freedom to assemble
- Freedom of the press
- Freedom of speech
- Freedom to travel
4:15 P. M. The phone just rang. It was Zelma and Harvey calling from Waco to tell me that my cousin Patsy (Sutton) Lambert died this morning, while in dialysis for the first time. Patsy will be buried on Friday, July 7, 2000 in Billington, Texas (about 15 miles west of Waco, where her parents, Harley and Dean are buried.) Her body right now is at the Bell Meade Funeral Home. That is a suburb east of Waco. Patsy is the one who introduced Jeannie and me. I’ll tell the story here:
For three years Patsy wrote to me or talked to me in person that she had found “the perfect girl” for me, and wanted me to meet her and date her. I would always tell Patsy I would meet this girl, then as fast as I could I would go the other way. Patsy and Jeannie had been roommates at North Texas State University for three years, until they graduated.
Well, Patsy ended up living back in Waco, Jeannie returned to her parents’ home in Dallas, and for a year of that time I was teaching Band in Santa Rosa, Texas; then I returned to Austin and attended graduate school for a couple of years.
Well, Patsy got engaged. She called me in Austin and asked me to come to her wedding. I said I would. Then she said, “…and, I want you to take the Maid of Honor out on a date after the wedding rehearsal.” I said I would. (Unknown to me, that was Jeannie.) At that time I was dating one of the beauty queens at the University of Texas.
So, I went to Waco for the wedding rehearsal. I had made a plaster-of-Paris mould of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” and painted it with oil paints for Patsy’s wedding gift. Upon arriving at her house (she lived with her parents) I carried that picture to give to her. A girl I had never seen before aswered my knock. She was gorgeous! My eyes opened wide, and I said to myself, “WOW!” And, that’s how I met Jeannie.
Yes, we had a date after the wedding rehearsal. We went bowling, then to a restaurant for dinner. I was falling hard. It was love at first sight.
The next night was the wedding, Jeannie and I had another date. I met her parents and her little brother Fred that night at the wedding, and liked them very much.
There is a custom at weddings for the bride to throw the bridal bouquet to the eligible maidens; and, the one to catch it is supposed to be the next one to get married. WELL! Patsy walked across the room AND HANDED IT TO JEANNIE!
We were married four months later.
At this writing, Jeannie and I are happily married as we approach our 36th wedding anniversary next month. We have three married children and five grandchildren, one being adopted and is as loved as all the others. (Two other of our children died in infancy.)
Recently we got a letter from Pasty dated June 14, 2000. She was in the hospital preparing for the beginning of dialysis. Jeannie and I were thrilled to hear from her, and both of us answered promptly. Zelma visited Patsy in the hospital (I think yesterday) and Patsy let her read our letters. Then Zelma called me today to tell me of Patsy’s death this morning. I wept As I write this, I still have tears in my eyes. Patsy was a good friend as well as a favorite cousin as we grew up.
Also, today is our own Abraham Maus Thrower’s birth date. He would be 22 years old today. He lived six months. That is another long story. We loved him dearly. He is with his brother Walter Andrew Thrower in the next life. I have seen them together in the Temple,–twice! So I know what work they are doing “on the other side.”
On this date twenty-four years ago, I gave our son Daniel Nephi Thrower his Name in Blessing at church in Canyon, Texas. He was born in Canyon on May 28th of that year. The day of the blessing was the bicentennial of our country. It was a very special day!
I think Daniel was 15 years old when he spent July 4th in Moscow, Russia just months after the fall of the Soviet Union. Daniel was there a Student Ambassador to the Soviet Union, which was Russia by the time his group got there. He was in Russia for three weeks. On the way over, his airplane stopped at Atlanta, Georgia. Former president Jimmy Carter boarded the plane heading for Washington, D.C. for the signing of the Nuclear Peace Treaty with our President Bush and President Yeltsin of Russia. Carter shook hands with everyone on Dan’s airplane. It was a thrill for Daniel. In Washington, D.C. Dan saw Yeltsin’s limousine going down the steet. A few days later in Moscow, he saw Yeltsin getting out of another limousine. Seeing the American Student Ambassadors across the street, he waved at them before going inside to his office at the Kremlin.
July 4th is a big day in my life, even if it weren’t our Independence Day.
I got sidetracked from writing about freedoms we can appreciate in this great country. I’ll not write any more about that right now, but the remainder of the day will be in memorium of all the above-mentioned events.
We have our flags flying outside.