"Born of goodly parents"

Today we read chapter 1 of 1st Nephi. We have read all of the title pages and testimonies and then today we started. It is good to be back in the Book of Mormon. I started reading and got teary and Dad said, "if you're going to cry all the time..." We both get emotional a lot.

But...I was born of goodly parents. My father may have been the most honest man I have ever known. And never, ever did I hear him swear. He was over 50 when I was born. We were pals. I was the last child of his second family, so I was his eighth. He had grandchildren who were born before I was.

I would often ask him to carry me and he would say, "I can't. I've got a bone in my leg!" That was all I needed to hear. (I was young.) I thought that was a perfect explanation. Daddy had a temper. He and Uncle Bill yelled at each other a lot. I don't remember his yelling at me, though.

My mother was little. But she was a doer. Her name was Lola Samantha and her mother's name was Samantha. That is why we named our first Samantha. Not because of the TV show Bewitched. Mama was 44 when I was born. She had 5 children in 10 years and nearly lost her life with many of us. The doctor in Salt Lake advised her not to have any more after Aunt Carol. They had already moved to California but returned for Aunt Carol's birth. So I was the only one in the family born in Calif. The story goes that when Mama and Daddy got to the hospital the doctor was already washed up and waiting. Didn't know why. If he hadn't been, neither of us would have survived. Blessings.