Porto

So, viola congress...

Portugal is wonderful! I love the moist sea-level air!  I love the beauty and the cobblestone, and the feeling of being in a place with a long history.

I am staying at the seminario, the Catholic seminary, and our congress events take place in a monastery! I love it.

The seminario is built on the hillside leading towards the river, so the building goes both up and down.  When I checked in, the young man told me to go to the elevators, and press -5 to go down five floors to where my room is. But the elevator only goes to -4...I did get out on -4 and do some looking around, but then ended up going to the desk for help because I did not wander far enough on -4 to find the stairway to -5. There is also an elevator on -4 that serves also -5, -6 and -7. I am sure there is another elevator hidden somewhere (hidden from me...others I am sure are well acquainted with it!) that serves the upper levels.

Level one and level -4 have been giving me a bit of grief. Those are the places where meals may be served. But...as to which one on what day, that I have not figured out. I inevitably go to the wrong place, then go to the desk, where they look at me like I am an idiot--which, in this situation, I am-- and tell me, no it is level the other!

I am just pleased with myself for being quite comfortable about finding my way around, and walking to and from the monastery, even in the dark. It is a lovely city.

The music at the congress has been great, too, and I have met some lovely people. Daphne, from Porto Allegre, Brasil, and Anna from New Zealand--both of whom I knew already; Anna for years, and Daphne for a shorter time--are great friends to hang out with.  Daphne feels right at home here, because she speaks the language fluently, of course, but also because Porto Allegre and Porto are similar cities, with similar settings. She definitely has got her bearings.I have her to thank that I can get around on my own...through the three of us walked to the metro and rode it to Casa de Musica yesterday, and then walked back, and I am quite sure that I could not do that on my own! Anna treated us to a lovely lunch at Agricola, and it was very good. I didn't know she was going to treat me, so when I realized it, I was glad that I only had a soup and salad.  Which was just the right amount of food for me.

Picture dump:

Ted's Funeral

This morning I left bright and early to meet up with Don and Mary to drive to Brigham City for my cousin Ted's funeral.  Ted passed away the last Wednesday of October. I have been feeling bad because he was ON HOSPICE and then I was like "I need to visit Ted" but I didn't do it right then...and he died. He was ready to go, but I was just annoyed with myself for not following that prompting to visit him.

As it turned out, Mary and I drove (well, actually I drove and Mary took shotgun position) because, death being the theme, Don's Aunt Norma is in the process of dying herself at the moment, and Don felt that his place was by her side.

When Don's mom, Effie, died, he and Mary had run home "for just a minute" and during that minute, Effie died. Her sister Norma was with her, and unfortunately, Effie's death was not peaceful and pleasant but rather violent and messy--just her last few moments were a struggle, and it really bothered Norma to see her sister in such distress. So Don feels a great tenderness for his aunt, and since she lives in their home, he felt the need to stay with her. Which is how it should be.

So, I drove, and Mary was the living GPS, and we drove right to where we needed to be.

It was interesting to re-meet Ted's children after many years.  I have seen Yvette sort of recently...she came to David's mission farewell with her dad, but that was twelve years ago. It has been much longer since I have seen any of her siblings.

Just for the record, those children are: Rex, Deward, Mark, Karla, Eric, ArLene, Craig, Beverly and Yvette. Rex is around a year younger than me, and Yvette is 17 years younger than Rex. Just like my own kids, only with a few more.

Rex was the first speaker at the funeral. He said the building we were in was the church that he attended as a child. One Sunday, they got home and counted noses, and there was no Mark. Rex remembered...oh yes...they were playing around in the church, and they locked Mark in a closet. So he said to his dad, "Maybe we left him at the church. Let's go look for him." (Maybe?) So Ted and Rex went back, and Rex, knowing where Mark was stashed, told his dad, "You go that way and I will go this way." So his dad went the other way and Rex went right to where Mark was and let him out.

Rex, who lives in Oregon, said that it is tradition for the oldest son of each Mitchell generation to move far away from his family.  I can't remember if his great-grandfather did, but his grandfather, my Uncle Bill, moved from the family farm in Turin AB to Vancouver BC. Ted moved from Vancouver to Utah. Rex moved from Utah to Oregon. His oldest son lives in Georgia, and Rex told him, "Don't expect your son to stick around. He will be moving far away." But, though separated by distance, Rex enjoyed frequent phone calls with his father. In one phone call about ten years ago, Ted said, "Don't get old, son." And Rex responded, "Dad, it's too late!"

Rex said his dad was quite the sporty one, playing rugby, basketball, captain of the bowling team, playing soccer (with a five year no goals on him streak to his credit) and track, in which he set a record for the mile in his high school.

Ted's grandson Matthew Johnson, recently returned from a mission to Boston, read excerpts from his grandfather's fifty page personal history.  He talked of his grandpa's love for a beautiful flower garden, a trait he learned from Uncle Bill who always had lots of flowers, with gladiolus being his favorite by far. (No wonder Uncle Bill moved to Vancouver! Much better weather for flowers there!)

Matthew told about the time that Ted was staying out at his grandpa Mitchell's farm in Turin.  Ted got up in the morning and looked outside and there were two rattlesnakes on the steps.  He grabbed the shotgun from behind the door, and was planning to just stick the gun out the door and shoot the rattlers, but that plan didn't work--the way the door worked, he couldn't get a good shot the right way--so he jumped up onto the kitchen sink and opened the kitchen window, stuck the shotgun out the window and BOOOM! BOOM! crash!  His grandfather came running, where he picked Ted up from the floor, where he had been slammed down by the recoil of the gun. Outside, the wooden steps were shot to smithereens, and all that was left of the snakes was some blood and mess.

Uncle Bill was not LDS like Aunt Edna, and Ted was not baptized at age 8. But he really wanted to be baptized. Uncle Bill would always say no. So, just a few weeks prior to age 14, Ted fasted and prayed that his dad would give him permission to be baptized.  He did give permission, so on his birthday, Feb. 5, Ted was baptized. The font was under the floor of the church, and it was so cold that the water in the font had frozen over night. They had to chop through six inches of ice, and that was the water in which Ted was baptized.

As a young man, Ted was a scout leader in BC. Oscar Kirkham, a general authority, asked the scout leaders in BC to organize a jamboree with the natives of the Capilano variety. Ted worked with Chief August Jack in this effort. When Elder Kirkham arrived from SLC for the jamboree, he went to present a Book of Mormon to the chief, who said, "I am not worthy to touch that book. I know what it is." He had his grandchildren take the book, which they received in a white leather cover.  This story meant a lot to Matthew, who is half native himself, his father being a native American.

Karla spoke of her dad's strong testimony, his love of temple work and of his church callings. When Karla was young, her dad was the Stake Sunday School president, and he would travel in the area and attend three Sunday School opening exercises on a Sunday. Karla liked to go with him.  He loved to teach Sunday School and liked to always have a lesson ready in case he needed to substitute.  One of the girls who sang the special number today, which was "I believe in Christ" was in Ted's Sunday School class years ago, and she sang that song in class. He asked her afterwards to sing it at his funeral when the time came, and so she did.

Ted loved the hymns--he liked to hear all the verses, so the whole story that the hymn was telling could be heard. As Ted's health declined, his family would sing or play hymns for him. Karla's daughter plays the flute, so she would play it for her grandpa. She also played french horn, so he asked her to play hymns on that. She said, "I am not that good at the horn. But if you pick one hymn for me to learn, I will learn it on the french horn and play it for you." So he chose "Praise to the man" and she did learn and play that for him.

Karla was speaking in the place of her dad's friend and Sunday School teacher, Jim Fuller. A Fuller family wedding conflicted with the funeral date.  Karla said that once her dad was unable to attend church, Brother Fuller would call and give the lesson to Ted on the phone. Ted commented to Karla how much he enjoyed the calls, and how much he learned from Brother Fuller. When Karla spoke to Brother Fuller, he said exactly the same thing, only how much he learned from Brother Mitchell. She read a short statement from Brother Fuller who said that his friend Ed (which is what he called our cousin who we called Ted) was a scholar who understood the doctrine of Jesus Christ and would share his thoughts freely.

And now for some pictures:

My cousin David G. and his wife Pat, who are coming up on their fiftieth anniversary. David would call Ted once a week for the past few year. What a great cousin!

Bill and Kaleena Farmer, Kaleena's dad Deward, Ted's second son, and Ellie (I think) the daughter of Mark, the third son.

same people, without the glare on Little Miss's glasses

The cousins who were there: Rod and Martha R., me, Mary, David and Pat G, and Frances R.

Same people with the order a bit different, and ALeda, Ted's lovely wife, in the middle.

Deward, his sister Beverly, their mom ALeda and cousin David

I also have the program, which I will scan later.

Later:

 

Book Launch

Last night, November 4, was the book launch at Orem Public Library for Shallee C. M.'s book "The Unhappening of Genesis Lee."  It was so fun to go and see her and her cute little family, and especially the family she grew up in!

Josie and I got there a few minutes early, so we took a picture of Shallee saying "Hi" to Nancy, which I texted to Nancy so she would know we were there and that we all wished she could be there, too.

We were saving seats for David and Shalise and Patrick, so Josie was sitting on one end and I was sitting on the other.  Josie noticed some girls come in and said, "Mom, there is that M. girl..." and I looked up and saw that Krissy M. and Missy F. were there, so I motioned for them to come and sit on the other side of me.

Krissy and I worked in the primary together for a few years, so we are pretty good friends. We had a nice visit, and I told them that David is engaged, so we were saving seats for them, and she looked at Josie and said, "Is that her...David's fiancee?" And I looked, and it was only Josie, so I said, "No, that is my baby, Josie."

Krissy's mouth dropped open and she said, "NO WAY!" and then she smiled at Josie and said, "I am sorry, I totally did not recognize you! How old are you now?" When Josie said, "Twenty" Krissy said to Missy, "Well, that makes sense. She is ten years younger than us. So when we got out of high school, she was only eight. So, she looks different."  Then Krissy turned to me and said, "And she probably didn't recognize us, either."

And I said, "Actually...she saw you and pointed you out to me..."

Krissy said, "Oh, wow. That's cool. I am sorry I didn't recognize her...not at all..."

"Well, you still look pretty much the same," I said. "You have not changed at all. You are still young and pretty!"

Then David and Shalise came and took their seats, and Shallee started her presentation. It was fun to learn about the various things that inspired the book...Lois Lowry's book "The Giver", Danny commenting to her one day "wouldn't it be cool if we never forgot anything...", the way that her mom attaches memories to objects, and keeps things for a long time just so she can remember events by them.

Shallee did a drawing for five fabulous prizes, and the second person to win was Shalise! That was fun.

Afterwards, I had a fun visit with Shallee's parents. Her mom just got out of the hospital on Sunday. She had a bad case of pneumonia that really knocked her for a loop. She is out on oxygen, so she has to wheel a canister around with her where ever she goes.

Kylee was there with her little son Jacob. She has gone through a second divorce, and is engaged to someone who she says is a good guy. I sure hope so. My goodness that girl has been through a lot! Too much. Since age 18, she has had the whole Bonnie and Clyde episode, the marriages and divorces, the house fire...

And their family has had unemployment and illness sooooo much. It has been a hard seven or eight years, her dad told me.  I can so sympathize.

Then Preston arrived, just as his mom was telling me that he has found a lovely girl who he is serious about, and the girl was with him, but then Cyndi said, "And I think that Josie knows her!" because Josie got up and ran over and she and Preston's gf were hugging each other.  Turns out Preston is dating one of Josie's high school friends.

Patrick was also with Josie and I by this time. He took his copy of the book over to Danny and had him write a little note to Shallee in it, so that when Patrick got to Shallee in the long autograph line that she could read a little love note from her husband. Patrick and Shallee had a good laugh as they read what Danny wrote in Patrick's book!

Shallee's dad took this picture. If you look to the left, you can see a black puffy coat...that is Patrik, and he is talking to Josie. If you see the guy in front of Patrick, his elbow is sticking out, and the hair above his elbow is Josie's hair.

Josie is a good flirt. Or not.

Josie should record this for her own history, but since she hasn't and isn't likely to, I will.

Josie is always saying that she doesn't know how to flirt. At all. Evidence:

She went to a Halloween party on Saturday night. She dressed as Bat Girl and left at 8:35 pm. At 10:15, she was home. I said, "You didn't stay very long."

She said, "I know. I told you I don't like parties."

This is how she came to leave:
A boy asked her to dance. She started following him onto the dance floor, then looked down at her hand and realized she was carrying a drink in a cup, which might spill were she to dance while holding it. So she turned around to go and put it down on a table, at which point she saw the friends she had come with to the party, and they said, "Are you ready to go?"

And she said "yes" and then walked right out the door with them.

Can you imagine the boy on the dance floor? He turns around, and she is gone! "Maybe she really was Bat Girl..."

But...totally NOT a good flirting attempt. At all.