It was short; it was sweet, but oh, the women were wonderful.
Loni Hackworth, Sue Primm, Jodi Gray, Jodi Prince, Mery Beth Fuller.
Sue recently lost 60 pounds thru bariatric surgery. When she showed me a picture of her before, I could not believe it was the same person; it was astounding. She was working at a call center for devices that help people who have fallen and other emergencies like that; she is retiring in a week from this writing. She has worked her entire life from when she was 18 and she is in her early 70's...she definitely deserves retirement.
Jodi Gray had many challenges; her own health, a son who died in his twenties from a disease, and other issues. She had a daughter with four children who just up and decided to move to England in September leaving her four children at home with her ex husband. The youngest child was ten. The father of these children had a heart attack right after the mother left, so Jodi and her husband went to help out. Then, Jodi suffered some great health challenges as of this writing. She honestly thought she would not live; three blood transfusions and other things. She was so fun! And, yet she had all those challenges.
Jodi Prince is the primary care giver for her aging mother. Jodi also works two jobs just to make enough money to survive. Hyundai and Kohl's. She is busy, but still wanted to serve in the temple. She had recently come back in to the church and felt she wanted to serve even tho she is a caregiver and has two jobs.
Mary Beth is one of the most amazing women I have ever met and I've met a lot of women. She came from a very dysfunctional mother. Yet when Mary Beth heard the Gospel, she joined as a teen and has been all in since. She worked as a Disney princess, a women's clothing buyer for Nordstrom, and she started the foreign language immersion programs here in Washington County, just to name a few things. As for her mother, Mary Beth did not like to talk about her - at all. But, she did tell me a couple of stories; like her mother emptied out Mary Beth's bank account. When Mary Beth went to register for college, every penny was gone. Her mother said she had raised her and she deserved the money - not Mary Beth who had saved every penny from her job! She told me a couple of other stories as well, all very disturbing. But, Mary Beth loved the Gospel and married a wonderful man who was an ER doc for many years. They left in August to teach English in China. BYU actually recruited them!
Missing from this picture is the office worker who is actually a paid employee of the church: Kim Uzelac; now there is a woman that is awesome. So happy, so positive, so helpful, so energetic and just happy all the time. She was a great mentor and everyone just loves KIM!
There are some reasons why I did not continue serving in the temple. But, it was a good experience and I'm grateful I was able to do it.
Yes, I'm very thankful.
