Faith in Family - Two Stories from the Section Authors Sherilyn Mills Hirschi and Amanda Mills Johnston

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The more stories that come in, the harder it is to choose which to share.  I have been limiting myself each week to a certain branch of the family tree.  This week, if I go in the same order I started with, we are back to Uncle Mavin's & Aunt Loa's branch. 

I spent yesterday typing up Aunt Lajune's Autobiography for the book.  It is priceless!  It got me thinking about birth order a bit.  Uncle Mavin was the oldest of the kids from Ruben and Lorna, with Uncle Glen next.  I have enough stories that it would take me more than a year to share them if I do one a week.  So with that said, this week, I have decided to share two stories from the first section of the book:  Faith in Family. 

The first one comes from Sherilyn and the second from Amanda Mills Johnston, daughter of Ben & Lori and granddaughter of Glen.  Both are tributes to family members.  Both touched me deeply and I hope you feel that same connection with Family that I did.

Missing Mom

By Sherilyn Mills Hirschi

 

In December of 2000, I spent Christmas Eve with my mom and dad at my brother Brent’s house. This Christmas Eve was on a Sunday, and we had a special Family Home Evening. Cosette sent around a stack of pictures depicting the life of Christ and asked us to choose a picture and share why we chose it. My mom chose a picture of Mary. I remember thinking it was a little odd that she’d chosen that particular picture and anticipated her sharing the reason she had chosen it. When it was mom's turn to share her story, she said she chose the picture of Mary because mothers are special, and she really missed her mother. Her mother, Inez Blazzard, had died when Mom was only 19. It had been nearly 44 years. Mom died unexpectedly about a month later. I remembered that Christmas Eve and how she expressed her feelings about missing her own mother throughout her funeral. It was such a comfort to know that although we missed my mom terribly, she was with her mom and didn’t have to miss her anymore. I know that particular Family Home Evening lesson was inspired and was certainly a “tender mercy” for me. That same picture of Mary was framed and given to me as a gift and continues to serve as a reminder. Mothers are special, and I miss my mom, but I know that I’ll see her again.

 

 

One of My Favorite People in the Whole World

By Amanda Mills Johnston

 

I do not consider myself to be a particularly religious or even spiritual person. However, one thing I have always had faith in was my family. I hail from the Glen Mills branch of the family. I am the second oldest child born to Ben and Lori Mills. At the time I am writing this I have been married to my husband for almost 14 years. Even so, when I am asked by someone new what my last name is, every once in a great while I still say it is Mills then have to correct myself and explain it is actually Johnston and that I am not in fact a newlywed.

 

When I think of the Mills family in general, I always remember family reunions at the homestead. As a kid, it was always one of my favorite outings in the year. I have many fond memories of everyone sitting around the fire all day chatting, hiking all over the big rocks, trying to catch lizards, watching my Grandpa Mills tease his brothers (and getting teased in return), having grandpa taking us on 4 wheeler rides. My absolute favorite memory from the homestead was from several years ago. My grandpa had gotten some aerial fireworks from somewhere and put on a show for us all after it got dark. I loved seeing everyone so excited to see the fireworks[1] going off and hearing everyone's clapping and cheering when they were finished. 

 

 My Grandpa Mills is one of my favorite people in the whole world. When I was a kid, one of my favorite things to do was going to his house to visit. He used to have a swing made of an old tire. He would hook the swing up to the horse walker along with the horses and then load up one of us kids to go along for the ride. He always had cookies for us when we came to visit. I can still remember the cupboard they were kept in! 

 

I remember the first time my grandpa was able to meet both of my kids and how special that was to me. For my son Ben, it was at a barbecue in my parents backyard maybe a week or two after he was born. I still remember him walking into the backyard with an excited look on his face, eyes scanning around for his newest grandbaby. For my daughter Blake, it was the day after she was born and he came to visit us in the hospital. He sat there holding her and just staring down at her beautiful face for the longest time. 

 

As my children have grown I have told them many times how lucky they are to have a Great Grandpa. Especially one that keeps up with them as well as he does. Does anyone reading this know of any other Great Grandpas who have attended multiple preschool field trips with any of their great grandchildren? I myself have never heard of another one. I have a video of him roping my son Ben on a preschool field trip to a farm. I will still pull it up on occasion when I need a smile or a laugh. I love taking my grandpa to school performances for my kids. He has been to most of their Halloween parades, Christmas/ Thanksgiving music performances, a class opera, dance festivals, etc. He always makes sure to have candy for my kids when we take them to trick or treat at his house. No family gathering seems quite complete to me unless he is in attendance. 

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[1] Comment from Sherilyn after reading this story:  “I love this!  I remember when he brought the fireworks.  I said, “This is so cool.  We’ve never had fireworks at our family reunion before.” And Aunt Lorna Gail replied, “Oh yes we have, just not the kind that shoot up in the sky.”