Boiselle Reunion

Today Allen and I drove to Lethbridge for the funeral of Lauretta Boisselle. She is the mother of my dear friend, Carma. I sure love Lauretta. She was always so good to me and always very welcoming.

LAURETTA MAY BOISSELLE (nee HEGGIE), beloved wife of Eugene Rowland Boisselle, passed away peacefully in Kelowna, B.C. on Monday, April 1st, 2013 at the age of 72 years.


Lauretta is predeceased by her first-born child, Richard Dean and by her parents, Dean and Georga Heggie.



She will be fondly missed by her 7 sisters and their families and by her surviving children: Patrick (Leslie), Andre (Bobbi), Carma (Lance) and Paul (Tracy), her 17 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren, who very lovingly called her "Bobo".



The Funeral Service will be held on Friday, April 5, 2013 at 2:00 p.m. at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, KNIGHT STREET CHAPEL, 260 E 200 N, Raymond, Alberta. Friends may meet the family prior to the service at the church from 1:00 to 1:45 p.m.



Interment to follow in the Temple Hill Cemetery, Raymond.

The funeral was wonderful. Roly did the talk on Lauretta's life. He did it all with no notes and told wonderful stories. Their granddaughter sang I Heard Him Come, a song that I have played on the piano a lot. It gave me shivers to listen to her sing it. I haven't heard it for years and it was beautiful.



Pat did the doctrinal talk and he really did a super job.

The closing hymn was # 235, which I thought was so interesting. It certainly is not a common hymn to pick for a funeral. I wondered who she was speaking to when she chose that hymn. It certainly is a beautiful hymn and a funeral is a good time to think about how we are handling our relationships with people.

Should you feel inclined to censure

Faults you may in others view,

Ask your own heart, ere you venture,

If you have not failings, too.

Let not friendly vows be broken;

Rather strive a friend to gain.

Many words in anger spoken

Find their passage home again.

 Do not, then, in idle pleasure
Trifle with a brother's fame;
Guard it as a valued treasure,
Sacred as your own good name.
Do not form opinions blindly;
Hastiness to trouble tends;
Those of whom we thought unkindly
Oft become our warmest friends.

Best of all though, I had a wonderful time visiting with everyone. I sat with Paul and Tracy for a while and heard about their family and their lives. I loved seeing Pat and Les. Les was one of my inspirations growing up and one of the reasons I chose to go on a mission. She is still exactly the same. It was so great to see her. . And of course, it was great to visit with Carma again. It made me really excited about the idea of a trip to Kelowna this summer. I have a lot of really great friends in Kelowna and it has been way too long!

I love you Boiselle family!

Writing

In October I got to attend an amazing conference. As I looked through my blog I realized I didn't even blog much about it! That is a tragedy because I truly found it to be one of the most inspiring few days I had all year. There's something about me and books and writers. It stirs my soul!

I cut out a little clip I found a while ago for a writing contest for Time Out For Women. I'm not going to post my entry (maybe in time). Writing it has made me think about a workshop I attended at the Kaleidoscope conference. There were only a few people in the workshop. The presenter started off by going around the room and having each of us answer the question, "What are you writing?"

I was the first to answer. I felt silly. I am interested in writing, but I don't really write. I write report cards. I write example paragraphs for students. But I don't seem to write much else.

The presenter just smiled and thanked me then went on to the next person.

That person kind of answered the same way: stumble, awkwardly come up with something, and stumble and hope that is the end of the conversation.

Again, the presenter smiled and went on to the next person.

After all six of us answered she announced we were going to do some writing. I can't even remember now what topic or starter she gave us. It was pretty vague. She told us, then said, "Okay. Go!" It was quiet in the room as we all paused, scribbled a few words down, and paused some more. And then the dreaded moment came where she asked us to share what we'd written! Again, we each stumbled through the process and hoped it would end soon.

I have thought a lot about that day since then. I've been thinking for a while about what I'd write for the Time Our For Women contest. I formulated some ideas in my head, tossed them around for a while, and then the other day finally sat down at the computer to start to put it together. It wasn't that bad. I printed off my story and have carried it with me, reading a paragraph now and then, editing as I go. And you know what?! I've really enjoyed it. Just like reading ,writing seems to stir something inside me.

Somehow I need to carve out some time to do more writing. I am thinking I'm going to have to give something up. Facebook? Scrabble? Mindless googling?

A lot of writers I've read about get up early and write first thing. I'm not sure I can get up any earlier - but I could try to get my mornings more organized so I can spend some time writing each day.

I feel like I need to give it a shot!

Easter Monday

A strange thing happened today. Allen organized a family get together! We drove down to Nanton and met the Letourneau's and the Nathan Ackroyd family and had a little picnic. It was totally low key and easy, and a great time....something we should definitely do more often.

After the picnic we went to see some baby lambs. They have had about 11 lambs born this week. One was born just minutes before we got there! And then, surprisingly, the ewe started again and had another one while we were there. Wow!

All the kids got to hold baby lambs. It was really a great time.

This is the little one that was born just as we arrived.