Why Me?, Why not Try Again, Who the Heck is Mabel Ish? and The Rest of the Story
As I have collected all these amazing stories, Family History has been on my mind a lot! Visits with family members in person, over the phone and back and forth in emails and texts has been so rewarding and helpful! Thank you for sharing your stories with me. Please continue to do so through email, phone call (801-414-9048) or completing this form.
My mom shared her story in a book that is now out of print, called "Links of Forever." It was a collection of stories about Family History. My mom's story is a huge reason why I believe what I do about life after death and the importance of family history and temple work. She gave me permission to retell her story for this book. It is a compilation of her published story, journal entries which she shared with me and personal interviews:
Why Me?
By Valerie Mills Hunt from the published account, interviews and journals of Rena Gayle Mills
My mom was married to Aunt Deanna's older brother Leonal "Dale" Webb on June 6, 1962. They had their first baby, Dalene on March 23, 1963, in Heber, Utah. They were sealed in the Salt Lake temple on 11 October 1963 with Deanna & Len, Dale and Deanna’s parents, Violet and Leonal and Mom's brother Bob and his wife, Bonnie in attendance.
Their 2nd baby, Christine, was born on July 19, 1964 in Heber, Utah and died three days later on July 21st from a heart defect. She was buried in the Tabiona cemetery on July 23rd.
Five months later, on January 7th, 1965, Mom, Dale and Dalene were traveling home to Tabiona after mom had spent New Year’s in Magna with her parents and sister, Carole. Dale came to get them and they were driving home in his new truck, only ten months out of the factory.
The weather turned as they approached Heber and they almost decided to pull off the road and get a hotel. But money was very short and they had driven on snowy roads before. Not too far past Heber, a gust of wind blew them across the road into the oncoming traffic lane. Dale corrected, but another gust blew them again and this time they were hit by a lumber truck, ironically driven by Dale's boss and neighbor, Charlie Fabrizio.
This was long before seat-belts were standard in vehicles or car seats were a given.
Dalene had been laying asleep with her head on my mom's lap and body between her parents when the accident occurred. She was thrown into the windshield and died instantly. My mom's knees were crushed into the dashboard. Her left arm was crushed. Her fingers on her right hand were broken where they had been holding onto the wing window latch as the accident occurred. My mom went in and out of consciousness. Dale was also unconscious as they were taken from the vehicle and transported to the closest hospital in Heber.
Mom and Dale were taken by ambulance the next morning to the old St. Mark’s hospital, at the time on 200 West and 700 North.
They were placed in separate rooms far enough apart that you could not hear what was being spoken. Mom remembers the moment Dale passed even though family tells her there is no way she could have seen or heard. She distinctly remembers seeing the doctor start toward the phone on the wall, Dale’s body jerk as they shocked his heart and also hearing Violet, Dale (and Aunt Deanna's) mom crying out, "Oh God, No." as she was notified of Dale’s passing in the waiting room.
Mom had 87 fractures, a bruised heart , but no marks where her garments covered. They were most afraid that mom would die due to being in shock. She required 5 units of blood. She was in a body cast for weeks, in and out of the hospital for surgeries and physical therapy, all the while mourning the loss of her little family.
One day, she received a letter from a stranger named Shirley Jones. Shirley had been in a car accident December 10th where she lost her husband and child. She and her unborn child survived that accident. When she saw mom's story in the paper in January, she felt the need to reach out to her. They became friends and Shirley encouraged mom to go to the temple. Grandpa Snodgrass drove mom to Salt Lake to pick up Shirley despite not being a member himself.
Not long after, mom was in bed asleep one night when a light awoke her. She looked over and her sister, Carole, was still asleep in her Hollywood bed about four feet away.
The light grew brighter and she could make out Dale in a white suit and two young women floating above the floor on his right. She knew them instantly. Dale looked just as he had on their wedding day with a lock of hair falling over his forehead. Dalene and Christine both appeared full grown, in their prime, but mom still knew instantly which daughter was which. Dalene was more slender with long, reddish blond straight hair and hazel eyes like her dad. Christine was slightly more round in her face with shorter, curlier dark brown hair like the Hardman side of the family.
They told her that they were happy and would wait for her, that she had work still to do.
She later came to know that work was to do the genealogy for her family. At that time, only she and her brother were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. (Grandma and Grandpa Snodgrass were baptized in January, 1976 a few months after I was baptized at age 8 in October, 1975). I like to think she also had the purpose of being the mom of four more kids, including me. We have been blessed to have this story of faith from my mom. I never doubted my mom's vision and have always believed that there was life after death and that we would see our loved ones again someday.
I thought I would also share a couple short stories that were included about family history and temple work:
Why Not Try Again?
By Rena Mills
I used to go to the Family Search library when Cline was home from work due to inclement weather. I decided to go one day to look up some records. I had looked for my 3rd great grandmother’s family previously with no luck. The census of 1850 and 1860 in Illinois was unreadable. I learned from a friend that there were two versions. I had research the second filming. I thought that the second would be better than the first.
I arrived at the library intending to look for information
on other line. A little voice in my
head said, “Why not try again”. So, I
found the census records for 1850 and 1860 for Adams and Hancock counties in
Illinois. I put the 1850 census on the
reader and before I started, I said a prayer.
I turned the handle about twice and there they were. I could read it very clearly when I had not
been able to before. That day between
those two censes’ I found fifteen of the seventeen children my great
grandparents had. I later found a
history one of the sons wrote the 1890 where he stated he was the seventh of
seventeen children, fourteen lived to maturity, ten still alive. one died at
eleven, two as infants. I have since
found all but the two infants.
Who the Heck is Mabel Ish?
By Valerie Mills Hunt
I grew up with a mom who loved doing genealogy. With Trent being a first generation convert, there was lots of temple work to be done on his side. I was using the church's Personal Ancestral Program to ready his family's names for the temple. The program allowed you to select the relationships you wanted to consider. I had selected that I wanted the names from Trent's grandfather, Byron and all the ancestors back.
I had spent time entering these names into the program so I was familiar with the names. I expected a certain number - around 13 - to be cleared for baptism, mostly those with surname of Hunt. At that time, the list of names came up and you took the printout to the temple where they would print your cards. As I scanned the list of names, there were several that I was not familiar with, including Mabel Ish and a couple Atkinsons. The next day I was at my mom's for an unrelated reason and she started telling me about this family on the other side of the veil that would not leave her alone and that she kept feeling prompted to do family history work for them.
That reminded me of my recent unknown names that showed up in my list. I asked my mom, if she knew who Mabel Ish was. She said, that's the same family that has been after me to get their work done. It turned out that my Mabel was related to the Atkinsons that were also on my list. So even though I specifically selected Trent's family members, the names from my mom’s side of the family showed up in my list. I was able to take them to the temple and do the work for them. I had heard stories of little miracles that my mom experienced doing genealogy, but this was the first time when I experienced my own miracle. There are spirits on the other side of the veil anxiously waiting to have their work done. I was humbled to be part of that.
The Rest of the Story
By Valerie Mills Hunt
Paul Harvey’s, The Rest of the Story, keeps going through my mind as I decide on a title for this story.
On Sunday, March 28, 2021, I went through my usual routine of pondering which stories I should share with the Mills family through email and posting on the MillsFamilyBook blog. After considering numerous options including sharing just one story or several on a topic, I chose to share three stories: “Why Me” about my mom, Rena Snodgrass Webb Mills’ experience losing her first husband and two oldest daughters; I also shared two about family history experiences – one my mom had shared and one I had experienced about 20 years ago when first married to Trent.
Monday, March 29, 2021 I was able to talk to our missionary daughter, McKenzi. Unbeknownst to me, her mission president had recently put her in charge of a Mission wide Zoom Conference on Family History. While I was pondering which stories to share, she was thinking about including those same stories in her presentation to the missionaries in the Louisiana Baton Rouge Mission. She was shocked to find the stories she was going to request from me already in her email box without having to ask.
I was humbled to be realize that my prayers to my Heavenly Father to help me choose stories that would benefit my family actually were an answer to a need of my own daughter while serving her mission. There isn’t much that brings greater joy than knowing that you are serving another and that I was in effect, serving as the hands of my Savior.
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