lovely

As my great-great-grandmother Placie Gehres used to write in her diary, yesterday was a “lovely” day.

One of the first surrogate mothers I found in my life was my Mia Maid advisor at church when I was 15. At age 15 I was not content with life. I was looking for attention, struggling with my mother working full time, with her dating, and marrying dad #3, and turning that awkward corner from adolescence to young adulthood. You could say I was a mess. But fortunately, we lived in a nice neighborhood where I made a lot of friends, and one of those treasured friends was Sister W. She accepted me, but more importantly, she loved me and gave me the attention I sought, which at the time made me practically worship her. I feel like one of those movie characters who swears devotion to another character who has saved my life. I will always be devoted to her. Because I can be sure that she will always love me.

I was thinking about her last week. I thought of calling, but talking on the phone is so awkward for me. I prefer to email, but last time I talked to her she did not have email. So instead I wrote her a note on a postcard and sent it off, basically asking if we could get together and catch up. She called on Saturday and left a message saying that she and her husband had just returned from a mission in Nauvoo, Illinois, and that they would be speaking in their church meeting on Sunday, and she invited me to come. The desire to see her overrode my shyness at attending an unfamiliar ward, and I knew that her children would also be there, so I decided to go.

She and her husband are not the most amazing speakers, so sacrament meeting was okay. But theirs is a family within which I can feel almost immediately comfortable. I enjoyed reconnecting with their daughters and seeing all of their grandchildren, and just feeling loved and accepted in BW’s presence. They had a little reunion at their house after the meeting, and it was nice. A little food, some pleasant family interactions, and I could not help but feel satisfied.