Aunt Nola

December 12, 2021

While I was in  Texas I received news that my Aunt Nola passed away. She had taken a fall a few weeks ago and had a slow brain bleed that they couldn’t get to stop. We were able to stop in and see her when we went up to Salt Lake for the Andre Bocelli concert and she was very coherent and we had a wonderful visit but she did struggle at times to find the words that she wanted to say. I am glad we made the effort see her. 

We were planning on going to the Mesa Temple open house as soon as I arrived home from Texas but we decided to head to Utah instead. For a while we considered trying to do both but that just sounded too complicated.

Friday night (Nov 26) we drove to Alycia’s. It was really good to see the kids (and my kid as well) and we spent the day Saturday with them. We decided to hike up into a place in Snow Canyon called “White Rock” because the rock is white instead of the more common red. It was the perfect hike for three little kids and the area is beautiful.

We had lunch at some Indian restaurant and then we bought ice cream at a different ice cream shop.

We left right after breakfast on Sunday morning and the kids (especially Ella) were very distraught. The crying was so sad that we decided to not put the kids through that again so we didn’t stop on the way home even though it was very late and I was very tired.

We stayed with the Sanchez’s but we only had time to say hello, change into our nice clothes, throw a piece of pizza in our mouths and head to Salt Lake.

 All of Aunt Nola’s kids were there and some cousins from other Aunts and uncles as well and I was really glad to see Greg and Gaylia along with Ross and two of his daughters, Melissa and Christin. Lisa was especially happy to see Ross since she wasn’t able to make it to the funeral and this is the first time she has seen Ross since Jackie passed.

After the viewing we had dinner with Greg and Gaylia and Ross and his girls. It was great to catch up. They all had to go home that night but we stayed at Sanchez’s so we could go to the funeral Monday morning.

The funeral was wonderful. When someone is 94 years old and they are the last one in their family to go, it isn’t really sad. She was ready to go and had a very full life. We’ll miss her but there were few tears shed.

The funeral was interesting because of Ruth’s husband Dale Renland. This is what Lisa sent to the kids in Whats App chat.

Church leadership at the funeral besides her son-in-law Dale Renlund (who spoke):

Elder Ballard - he spoke.

Elder Holland - he read a beautiful letter from the First Presidency.

Elder Uchtdorf

Elder Carl B Cook

Elder Randy D Funk

Elder John C Pingree

Elder Lynn G. Robbins

Sister Jean B. Bingham 

Sister Joy D. Jones

They were all on the stand and there were others in the congregation who've had callings but have been released that you would recognize.

The Tongan choir that sang was AMAZING!!

It was absolutely beautiful. Her daughter Louise played a medley. Kira and Brandon, you would have loved the ragtime version of "Called To Serve." Aunt Nola always said, and they mentioned it at the funeral, that hymns should be played at dance tempo.

In case you didn’t know Aunt Nola this picture that Kira found of her and Aunt Nola shows perfectly the personality that she had.

When my parents both died so early we made a conscious effort to involve Uncle Merlin and Aunt Nola in our lives and they both accepted our family with open arms. They were my Aunt and Uncle but they were almost like my parents in many ways.