MEMORABLE THINGS I HAVE LEARNED ABOUT LIFE

 FROM GRANDPA AND GRANDMA GEE

By Laurene Gee Starkey

 At an early age I learned that some grandmas like to sew, and that this could be scary if a little girl was afraid of cheetah spots, tigers, or zebra stripes on a host of brothers or boy cousins. 

 A few years later I learned how to piece Holly Hobbies together and make a homemade school wardrobe.  I had my 7th grade pictures taken wearing a red and blue calico dress with a bright red pinafore, and I felt like a treasured porcelain doll in it.

 The summer after my freshman year of college, I got to stay a couple of weeks in Paris with them.  Together, we toured the tabernacle, listened to Tannhauser, and talked about the aging portraits that looked at us from the walls.  I cried about a recent heartbreak and Grandma listened.  She showed me how to piece together and place fabric, picking and sewing--hands mending hearts. 

 Later, when pieces of that same fabric became part of a dress of a doll given to my brother David's forever sweetheart and my good friend-now sister-Megan, I learned that love really is a circle of rings reaching continually including others as we allow it.

 That same Paris summer, I learned that when I am seventy, I hope to contentedly sit in the same rocking chair with my spouse.  I hope to be able to read a whole chapter from the Book of Mormon together in one day, and be interested in making a new recipe.

 Speaking of recipes, I learned at a young age that there was chocolate in a closet at Grandma and Grandpas, and consequences if the chocolate was consumed without consent!

 I also learned to love being with cousins who could make up intriguingly funny stories, and invent intensely interesting adventures with secret codes and hiding places. 

 I learned that Grandpa could silence the herd of us at an outdoor meal without being harsh. 

 The summer after my 8th or 9th grade year, Grandpa and Grandma invited me to join them on a trip to Lander via the Black Hills.  Remembering the time that we looked together at the presidents carved on Mount Rushmore, I can still hear the prayers that I have heard from Grandfather's lips to bless the leaders of the land to be "statesmen."  Sitting with my grandparents on a hillside in South Dakota at dusk, I remember the emotions of watching a Passion Play (an outdoor portrayal of Christ's final mortal days,) together grateful for the gift of a flawless leader.

 I learned from having a grandfather who could use his priesthood to administer to me that a blessing could be like a treasure hunt, more and more precious as I continued to appreciate and search for its meaning and realize its depths. 

 Now that we are further apart, I still value memories of what they have taught me:

             I have learned to appreciate my grandparents' search for fitting careers, and then aptly "fitting" them with their family, church, culture, and community.

 I have learned that a toothbrush can be used for other things than teeth--you know, corners, crannies, and even commodes, only don't use it on your teeth again!

I have learned that my children can play for hours with little miniature animals like the ones in Grandma's library…and that a good book can go a long way.

I have come to love General Conference, and hope that my little girls will some day want to try crocheting.  I hope at least that they will learn to gladly share when they take turns wearing the green beret Grandma crocheted for their mother when I was their age.

             I have learned that I want my grandchildren to call and tell me stories about their children.  That seems to make the eternal circle more complete and accentuates some of the joy in this "posterity" business.  I ultimately hope to care and laugh as easily and heartily as I have heard and felt when my dear Grandpa and Grandma Pearl and Ivin Gee have been on the other end of the line.

I am glad that they chose to marry--and that they continue to love their spouse, and their children, and the children of those children.  I am not acquainted with many second-grade instructors that do exponential equations--or meteorologists, either--to be frank…but there seems to be something that doubles, and doubles, double again, with teaching and loving and blessing.  I am grateful to be riding in one of those rippling waves.  Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa.  And may it ever continue to be "a beautiful day in Fremont County" as long as you choose to belong there.  We love you.

 Written 6 August, 2000

By Laurene Gee Starkey (Daughter of Glendon and Shirley Gee)