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Show ommunity ews New Year's resolutions Coveting what matters most A2 • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3 1 , 2008 - N E W S - Spanish Fork 280 North Main St. Spanish Fork, UT 84660 Lane Henderson Publisher Namon Bills Editor Dana Robinson . Assoc. Editor The Spanish Fork News is published each Wednesday for $37.50 per year in area and $41.50 out of area by J-Mart, 280 North Main St., Spanish Fork Utah 84660. Email stories to editor@spforknews.com Email ads to ads@spforknews.com Call us at 794-4964 POSTMASTER Send address changes to Spanish Fork News 280 North Main St. Spanish Fork, Utah 84660 The entire content of this newspaper is Copyright © 2008 Spanish Fork News. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the editor or publisher. THE SPANISH FORK NEWS (USPS 024716) is published weekly for $37.50 per year by JMart Publishing, 280 North Main St., Spanish Fork, UT 84660. Periodicals Postage Paid at Spanish Fork, i n ; POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Spanish Fork News, 42 East 300 North, Spanish Fork, UT 84660. recollections of our 30year friendship have slowly Galloping Geezer been sucked into a black r Gar) Davis memory hole. There was a mountain vacation with our I went to see my friend two families and Paul's new Paul in St. George recently. boat where we broke three I met his roommate, Melvin, props during the week. and his friends, Frank, Rose Another time the two of and Shirley. They were all in us struggled to put snow the dining room. Rose was chains on his Chevy wagon asleep in her wheelchair, during a blizzard at the top her open mouth forming a of the California grapevine. There were graduations and nearly perfect "O" and the mission farewells and marupper half of her dentures riages and lots of shared were hanging loose. Melvin food, company, love and can no longer talk. If some- laughter. During our latest one helps him to his feet visit, there was only an ocand walks slowly with him, casional glimmer of recoghe can shuffle along without nition. A few times his wheelchair. Melvin used he reached over to teach school and served and put his large as an LDS stake patriarch. hand on top of Frank was born in Puerto mine and smiled. Rico. He worked construction most of his adult life. He mixes some English in with his native Spanish, Conwhich, I'm told, includes nie, Paul's a good deal of profanity. wife, is at Mostly though, he makes the "home" growling noises. His daugh- four hours ter came and took Frank to every day. An her house for Thanksgiving angel of light but his attitude made it a and mercy, rough day for the family. she knows Paul doesn't talk much everyone's any more either and his name and she helps feed those who can't feed themselves. She flirts with "her man" like a teenage girl and brings a glow to his eyes. "That's my wife. What do ya* think?" he used to say proudly when she came to visit. Now, he remembers her name only part of the time. This gut-wrenching scenario or one similar affects over 22 million families in our nation. "Once a man, twice a child," my father used to say. It was true for him, but the effects of his dementia were not as rapid or dramatic as the Alzheimer's that is ravaging the mind of my friend Paul. He is only in his sixties and looks even younger, On more than one occasion, strangers asked if he were y P f o ^ son, which he used tofindhilarious. When Paul began wandering away from home, the family knew it was time for him to be placed in a facility where his wandering could be confined. That was tough on everyone. Physically, he isn't like the others he's now living with. Paul is tall and comparatively young and strong. "These are not my kind of people," he told his wife. "Paul, you can help these people," Connie told him. "You can be like their home teacher." Oh sure, here's a guy losing his mind and his wife asks him to be a big brother to a bunch of glassy-eyed zombies. But he did it. The patients looked up to him and he became a friend to everyone who lives and works in his wing. A care nurse came into his room during our visit and told us that Paul wanted her to sit doSvn and rest that morning, u "Did he tell you that?" Connie asked. .i "No, he just put his hand on my shoulder and pointed to a chair. 'Do you think I'm working too hard?* I asked. He nodded his head, so I sat down for a few moments. I tell him he's my man when I'm at work." The facility cook, a jotund, jovial man in his fifties, came by to kibitz wjth Paul and engage him in a mock boxing match. I confess to feeling a little jealous that he seemed more familiar with the cook than he did with my wife and I. "This has been a refining experience for PauJ," his wife remarked to us. That was an epiphany for me — that we can ccjntinue to be refined with our mind half gone ajid virtually everything that used give our life mea'ning absent. My resolutions for the New Year? Cherish family and friends, serve those you love, and be open to refinement. email-ipi 1940@ms;n. com Remembering homes There and Back Again Shirlene R. Ottesen per. Kathy.Brandon - Manager. LuAnn Chrislensen • Service Manager 'EVERYONE A HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON AND LOOK FORWARD TO SERVING YOU IN 2009. 135 years of experience serving you. Spanish Fork Office • 190 N. Main St. • 798-8683 ZIONS BANK WE HAVEN'T FORGOTTEN W H OKEEPS www.zionsbank.com* USIN BUSINESS.* I'm writing this on Dec. 23 and now that I have moved, tonight I will be sleeping in my new old home for the first time in 42 years! I suppose this needs some explanation. When my husband and I were married in 1954, we lived in an old pioneer home for 12 years. It was on some property that my father had bought and it had a few challenges. The front part of the home was two-story adobe and when we moved in, the bedrooms upstairs were not usable. The home had 10 foot ceilings and it was difficult to heat with the coal stoves. The only thing that I used the upstairs for was storage. We put up some wire clotheslines to dry clothes in the winter and our children liked to play there in the summer. There was only one bedroom downstairs and one clothes closet for our family of seven. We used the front "parlor" for our bedroom and had four children in the bedroom and our last daughter had to sleep in a crib in the living room while they built the rest of the home. It was a beautiful home in it's day, but because of poor construction it left a lot to be desired when we lived there not to mention that it was air-conditioned both winter and summer. There are lots of stories connected with this pioneer house, but I shall not bore you with the details. ""in 1966, Hy and I built our new home. We started construction in August and it was ready to move into at Christmas time. I was busy working, trying to get reacly for Christmas and I was planning on moving after Christmas when I had more time to do it in an organized and orderly manner. Hy didn't quite agree with my plan and around Dec. 20'he informed me that we We're moving! His exact words were "I'm moving-if you want to come, fine." It was on Dec. 23 that we slept for the first time in our new house and it was wonderful! There was not only one bathroom in the house,,but two! And it was so wacSm. See HOMES-A3 " J •J _! 1 * " ; DKDAVIS PHOTOGRAPHY.COM 801.318.9907 SPECIALIZING IN GRUNGE PHOTOGRAPHY |