Memorial Day

When I was a kid, on Memorial Day my family would always make the long drive to a small cemetery in Alta, Wyoming and put flowers on my relatives' graves, people who I had never met or talked to. I never really felt a connection to those people. Sure it was interesting to read their tombstones and think about their lives, but cemeteries always felt a little creepy to me. All those dead bodies in the ground. I felt that way up until almost two years ago when we had to say good bye to our little baby Elena Christine. She died about an hour after she was born, and it was the toughest thing in the world to seal up that casket and put it in the ground. But now I have to say my perspective has changed a lot. Cemeteries hold a reverence for me now, and there is such a peaceful feeling there that I never felt before. We visited Elena's grave on Monday evening as a family, put new flowers on her grave, and sang our usual "Families Can Be Together Forever." Although I still feel the pain from losing her, I feel a calmness too in my life that things will be okay. Elena is waiting for us to join her up in heaven, and it is up to us to live in a way that we can be a family forever. I love the gospel, and I love my family!