Monday, February 6, 2012

I’ve been writing a lot lately, just not on “Wing on Wing.”

Three stake presidents have asked me to update the history of our stake since the publication of my “How Firm a Foundation” book in 1994. As Karen said, I wouldn’t have wanted anyone else to have done it, but neither could I have comprehended during the ULI executive years and single parenting years that I could put the time, let alone the thought, into resuming a project such as that. I burst into tears when President Lowry asked about five years ago, so impossible did that seem then.

Nevertheless, over the past 18 years I somehow still became the recipient of documents which people thought I should have, even though I had long been released as stake historian. When we had to move out of the stake center during its reconstruction, even more files came my way. The boxes and guilt started to pile up. I resolved that as soon as I became an empty-nester, I would tackle the stake history again.

But just a few days after delivering Akemi to college was when I tripped and fell, and what were supposed to be my care-free empty-nester days have been darkly overshadowed by matters that had not been on my agenda. Feeling good again after a scary December, I have taken a “now or never” attitude about this stake history “catch-up.” You know, the Nephi “I will go and do” sort of thing, especially before my next treatment.

Last June I gathered together our three former stake presidents and their wives, with our current stake president and his wife, to interview them about what they considered to be the highlights during their presidencies. I also captured their roundtable discussion about their impressions of what it’s like for the Pasadena Saints to live the gospel. I’ve been writing up all that material with what’s in all those boxes – it’s not the book continued, but more a summary of what the stake presidents considered to be the most important events during their years of service.

It’s almost done; it’s gone surprisingly quickly. I’m trying to finish a draft to circulate this week. And then I’ll return to “Wing on Wing.”