Memorial Day Musings

This picture is of the "last rose of the season" given to be by Woody Longhurst.  I'd like to take a moment on this memorial day to remember him.

I met April and Woody Longhurst when Brady  and I first moved into our house in Pocatello.  We didn't have much money so I had packed up all our food and brought it with us from Utah.  The problem was that we had to move out of our apartment before we closed on our house.  This left me with a bunch of food rotting in my hotel room.  Someone in the ward suggested I call April because she had an extra fridge so I did and even though she was so much older than me we clicked immediately and became friends.

I met Woody later and we quickly became friends because we both loved to garden.  He had a Greenhouse and let me start some of my plants in there.  I started 2 flats of flowers and 1 of veggies.  He laughed at me for wanting flowers but helped me get them growing anyway.  We had a nice spring growing our little plants and visiting about life.  Woody had an amazing life and loved to tell stories, and he always seemed to have time for me.  I grew to love him quickly.

During this time I was struggling with severs depression caused by my bi-polar disorder.  I really believed that I could be healed if I met a general 

authority.  I know now how silly this is because the priesthood is the same no matter who holds it but never the less I really wanted to meet one.  I got the chance to meet President Faust later that summer and while the spirit testified to me that he was a great man of God  I was not healed.  I did get my miracle though.  Just not in the way I wanted.  

I went back home and visited Woody later that week.  He showed be a bag of tomato seeds I had carelessly discarded at the end of the last summer.  The little seeds had sprouted and started to grow in the package.  He took each seed (that I would have thrown out) and lovingly planted them.  Watching Woody care for those little tomato seeds so lovingly gave me incite to how much the Savior must care for me.  It was a small simple lesson but one I will never forget.  Just like my friend loved those little seeds the Savior loves all of us.

This realisation was the catalyst that started me on the road to recovery from my depression.  April, Woody's wife, was a retired social worker and so I started going to counseling with her and she helped me find a great team of doctors who specialize in bi-polar.  It was a long hard fight but well worth it, and I am proud to say I haven't had 

a sever mania or depression for 4 years.

Woody passed on a little over a year ago and I am proud to have been counted as one of his friends.  I hope through our friendsh

ip I was able to give some of the love he gave me back.  I know every time I garden I think of him, especially when I eat the first big red tomato of the season.