26 MAY 2012:
I have gained great strength from my ancestors and I am so grateful for them. It is good to remember their remarkable lives. I am including here photos of some of the burial places of those who mean a lot to me.
Mapleton Cemetery
We start each Memorial Day weekend with the cemetery in Mapleton, Utah. This is where Wayne's parents and his brother-in-law, Everett "Skip" Predmore, is buried. He was Relda's husband.
Wayne provides the chrysanthemums from him and from Relda. Both of them love yellow.
Bicknell Cemetery
This is the red rock hillside from across the Bicknell Cemetery.
I find it much more beautiful now than I did when I lived in Bicknell as a Jr. in High School.
Bicknell, Utah Cemetery
The two headstones in the front are for my father's mother's mother and father,
Christian Johnson (6 Apr 1843 - 13 Dec 1925) and
Martha Lewis Johnson (10 Jun 1849 - 11 May 1885).
I have a lot of respect for who they were and their strong faith and the desires for excellence they exemplified throughout their lives.
We visited the gravesite of my Dad. It was a cold and windy day, but Mom was grateful to be able to visit here and place flowers.
Some of our other relatives buried in Bicknell are:
Dad's Mother:
Dad's Father:
Dad's Brother:
Another of Dad's Brothers:
Dad's Brother, Uncle Clifford:
Lyman Cemetery
My Mother's Mother and Dad. Grandma & Grandpa Turner.
James Collier Turner (19 Dec 1893 - 30 Nov 1979) and
Hazel May Oldroyd Turner (18 Feb 1892 - 2 Jun 1976)
Grandpa went by Collier and Grandma by Hazel.
Some of the others who were buried in Lyman are:
Wonderful pioneers: Benjamin Godfrey Turner (18 Aug 1854 - 21 Apr 1918) and
Susan Olds Turner (14 Apr 1857 - 10 Apr 1923)
Susan was born in South Africa and immigrated to Utah in 1860 with the only handcart company to experience no fatalities. Susan was three and she had an older sister, Mary Jane, and brother, Tom; her mother, Elizabeth, was 30 years old and traveled as a single mom.
Benjamin and Susan were my Grandpa Turner's parents.
And there are the tombstones of five of their babies, three of them dying on the same day in 1879 and the oldest two babies dying at age seven months. I can't even imagine the heartbreak.
They buried five of their 12 children.
Lyman, Utah, Grandpa & Grandma Turner's Farm
This garage/granary has many happy memories.
When Mom was young, she and her sisters/friends slept on the lower slanted roof in the summer months and loved watching the stars.
This is a present-day photo of Grandpa Turner's farmland.
Renewal of Family Relationships
After decorating the graves, we all met at the Sunglow Cafe.
When Cula Ekker owned it, she invented the Pickle & Pinto Bean Pie. Delicious!
The best mortician of all, our cousin Bruce Turner and his wife.
My favorite cousins (shhh, don't tell the others), Jamie King Warner & Karlene King Knudsen.
Wonderful cousins: Becky Morrell Pace, Linda Turner Smith, Sharon Turner Jackson
Then there is Wayne & me.
Love these two sisters: Aunt Claudia Turner King &
Mom, Dawn Turner Mangum
All of us who gathered on this Memorial Day.
THE END
