Sentimental Sunday The Hero Was Humble

Did you miss the Hero Story last week?  I did.  I forgot my own personal quote:"Sometimes you get so busy you have a hard time choosing which flower to smell...The trick is not ot allow things that are not essential to  block out that which is essential, so remember to STOP and enjoy the flowers filled with the sent of life." --The Hummer
This story was a painful one for the Hero.  It was not pain for himself rather pain for his child.
Have you ever been so upset and angered over someone's behavior you were ready to pick up and move?  This is where this event took the Hero.
Our son loved Boy Scouts.  He always looked forward to the yearly summer Scout Camp.  He had never had friends in his own troop, but at Camp he was able to make friends there.  His second year, we were apprehensive because some of the boys who were going had been ugly and physically abusive to him.
We trusted the leader and let him go.  When we picked our son up he told us that some of the young men had gone into his tent and had urinated on his sleeping bag, among other things.  He told us because he anticipated the boys fathers calling us, which they did.  However, the boys never apologized and the leaders never applied any disciplinary action other than telling the boys' parents.  They continued to assist them in getting their Eagle.

The Hero was incensed, he felt justice had not come forth for his son.  He went so far as to look into going 65 miles away to church, but our son said "No, dad, it is something I need to work out. We need to stay where we are supposed to be."  Of course, The Hero could have said you don't know what you are talking about, and taken us anyway.  We would have gone, but he didn't he was humble enough to listen to his son and learned from the example his son showed in forgiving and never saying harsh words about those who had tormented him.  He was humble enough to learn from his son. All turned out well for our son; he is a wonderful man.   I am thankful for both of them.  

The Hero with our son and his new wife at Mount Timpanogos Temple

FamilyHistory Expo Coming to Oklahoma

Oops, I missed Follow Friday, but I have a great watch for a FamilyHistory Expo coming near you.

The next up and coming Expo is at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (click on Oklahoma City to view the classes)  on April 11th.  The FamilyHistory Expo is a wonderful event.  It is affordable, wonderful classes, and how do you say awesome... oh right... awesome instructors.  You must go if  you are in the Oklahoma area or how about taking a trip for genealogy and be instructed while you are there.  
I am attending a FamilyHistory Expo in Houston on April 6 and 7th, which is near my home so, I practice what I preach.

Follow Friday: Ohio Genealogy Helps.

FamilySearch.org has begun a new Beta site to assist Ohio genealogy researchers.  They are thinking if there is enough response both for helping and utilizing, that they will add more states.  How many of you would like personalized genealogy help?
This is found on Labs.FamilySearch.org where you click on Research Assistance next to the Ohio picture and you are brought to this site :

Get Help with Ohio Research

This is just a clip to give you an idea.  There is much more on the page. 

Click on Get Help with Ohio Research and you will be able to view and explore the new Beta site.

Happy exploring!

Sentimental Sunday The Hero Loved Stone

The Hero had a love for anything that had to do with stones.  If we were camping he would pick up a stone as we walked along naming what kind of stone it was.  Should we be walking down a sidewalk in town, he would stop to look at a building, or a deck, or a fountain, and start discussing what kind of stone it was or about the quality of the workmanship.  We all laughed that it has stuck with us over the years and will still find ourselves thinking about a stone we see.
He loved that area of the construction trade.  Part of his job with his father's supply company was to work with the quarries and find the stones or mixture of stones for customers that had bid jobs or architects that needed specific colors, stone, or blends.

The most notable was the job of M D Anderson when they decided to build a second annex building.  The architects wanted to keep the same color as the cut marble on the first building but use a new technique that had crushed marble applied to the panels instead of cut marble slabs. The task of finding the correct blend of crushed marble fell to the Hero.  He ended up visiting 6 quarries all over the United States and mixing the different colors of marble to get the blend that matched the marble on the original building.
Later he also assisted in overseeing the seamless flooring put in the bathrooms in the new building.
It was ironic that his last hospital stay was in this annex.  The same flooring was in place, about 20+ years later.  He was loved telling the employees there the work that went into creating the beautiful building they were working in. He never lost his love for the beauty of natural stone.

Sentimental Sunday The Hero Was Always There To Help

It was a pleasant month of May.  We took the Blue Van with all the children to go pick my daughter up to take her home from Brigham Young University.  We had fun exploring the Provo area and camping in Utah, it was beautiful.  As we started home, it actually was hot.  The first part of the trip was Interstate Highway 70 over to Colorado.  At Green River, Utah, we asked what the weather was like a head. At this point, we were in Short sleeves, shorts, and had the A/C on.  The truck stop said no inclement weather is forecast, should be good traveling.  We were not mountain people. We believed what they told us.

This was our usual behavior bantering. 

Wanting to get back to work, the Hero decided that we could take turns driving so we could arrive home by noon the next day.  We decided at Grand Junction, Colorado to take Highway 50 across to Interstate 25.  I would take the first shift driving and he would sleep since the roads were nice and not much traffic.  He knew that driving in the mountains was NOT my favorite thing to do.  It was pleasant driving until I passed Gunnison then it began to be drizzly.  Not too bad to drive in; I just slowed down a bit.  I was approaching Monarch pass when the drizzle turned into drops, then slushy drops, I was about half way up to the pass when it turned into SNOW!  I was not equipped to do this. My first instinct was to yell, "Hero"! "Wake up!"

Wikipedia.  We could not see the building as we passed it.

He sat up with a jerk hearing the tone in my voice and said "What's going on?"  At this point, I could no longer see the road but if I pulled close to the mountain (the wrong side of the road) I could tell where it was supposed to be and there was a car about 3 links in front of me I could make out the lights of.  The wind was blowing the snow around, I said "It looks like a white out."  He immediately reacted with "Pull over". My response was "Where?"  It was obvious we could not tell where the side of the road was.  So he asked nicely, "What do you want me to do?"  "Pray!"  He chuckled and said "Yes, I will".  He did say a prayer for our safety, especially since we saw the car in front of us slide to a stop off to the side of the road.  

As I drove, there were little puffs of wind that would clear my vision for a short distance through the pass.  As we started down, the Hero and the children awake sang hymns to soothe my tense self.  I went slowly. Then as we left the pass down, the snow slowed, and we met a BIG semi coming up the mountain. Prayers of thanks went up that we had not met him at the top.  The snow turned into slush, then drizzle until we got to the bottom and it wasn't even raining.
I was so frazzled that the Hero took over the driving, because he was keyed up from the experience.  He drove all the way through Raton pass, then woke me up for me to take over.
I was so grateful for his support and spiritual boost when I felt overwhelmed. Could not have done it without his presence.  I miss our trips.
 

Sentimental Sunday The Hero Gained Personal Wisdom

Always drink upstream from the herd. -  Will Rogers

You can probably tell where this story is going.  The Hero went hiking with his son and son-in-law in Utah.  They were excited, since they were from Texas where there are not many chances for mountain climbs. 

His description of the hike up the trails was exquisite, rocky trails, small wildlife, tall trees and a mountain stream, fresh sweet mountain air.   

He wanted to go slow and just take in the sights, however, the boys were young vigorous and kept moving along at a good pace.  It was hot and the Hero had not brought along a canteen.  They came to an opening in the woods where there was a place to sit on a rock and enjoy the lovely stream as it flowed on down the mountain.  It looked so inviting.  He said. "Guys, why don't we get a sip of the water here?  The water is clear and it is flowing over rocks."  The boys said "Dad, lets go on a bit further before we take a break."  He was hot, but he wasn't going to be a wimp with the boys, so higher they went.  I do not remember exactly how much further they went, maybe one of the boys will come on and elaborate, but it must not have been that much further, as it made a big impression on the Hero.  They came to another wide spot in the trail by the stream and it was muddy, smelly, and elk hoof prints all over.  He said it had the appearance of being a spot that the elk came to drink and do other bodily functions at.  He was so glad he had not sipped from the stream down below.  You should have seen the grins of the boys as they chimed in telling the story. So, you see, there is wisdom in Will Roger's quote. 

Sentimental Sunday The Hero Made Things Happen

This last week I was exploring the FamilySearch Learning Center area to see what was new.

I randomly choose a video to check it out.  It turned out to be Tom Kemp teaching.  (now I can't zero back on it.)  In the middle of the video he was talking about using Facebook as a research tool.  I listened as he talked about finding a family group on Facebook, on which he found pictures and information.  I considered this and decided it was time to set up our Langley Family -- Descendants of William Langley and Nancy Carrier group on Facebook to find those branches that have not yet been found.
I contacted a distant cousin and told him what I was up to. He thought it was a great idea and supported the idea.  I set it up and added pictures, links to blog posts, then invited some cousins and told Brian to invite his family. It was set up as an open group and once I had it formatted and set up I told the members it was their page to share, search, and grab pictures. 
I was wonderful to see it went from 2 to 41 members in two days.  Most are 3 and 4th generation that I am just now meeting. It is so fun to see the meet and greet and explanations going on in the chat. 

Now, I know you are thinking what does that have to do with the Hero.  About 1998, I was beginning to realize the importance of have proofs on information I had in our family history we were gathering.  I asked if we could go to Pawnee, Oklahoma and see if we could find my great grandmother's grave, and if we could maybe go to the court house.  He said maybe; he would have to see if he could take a couple of days off during the week.  It was approved, so we began our journey. We first went to my Aunt Lynn's to found out where the grave site was.  She mentioned she had heard from my cousin Janice in Kansas.  My heart went zing, I had not seen Janice since my one of my other aunts had died in 1973. I looked longingly at the Hero and said... could we call her and maybe see her?  That slow smile came over his face and he said sure, what is the number.  We called and it just so happened that she was off and so was her husband could we wait?  They could be down in an hour.  When they arrived, we began sharing what had happened in the last 27 years. (Yes, that is way too long) After about and hour, there was an 'ahem' , I looked at the Hero and he said we need to go to the court house if we are going to make it on time.  He looked at my cousin and her husband and said, 'Do you all want to come too?'  Yes.  We all piled into the car went to the court house, they actually had the death certificate for my gr gr grandmother Sarah Jane Hankins Langley.  We got two copies one for me and one for Janice.  We saw that the funeral home listed was just across the street, so we went there.  They gave us the burial plot and a map.  We then when out to the graveyard and found the grave site.  The Hero managed to help us, connect with each other, obtain a death certificate and grave site information as well as a visit to the grave yard all in 3 hours in one day. With the Hero's help this was the beginning of a special bond my cousin and I still share today.  We both remember that day well.  Many of those reconnecting on Facebook are nieces, siblings, and nephews of Janice.  I love the Hero so much for taking time out of his busy work life to help me find my family living and dead.  He was a family man.