The Anniversary Trip

Not everyone lives to tell about their 59th Wedding Anniversary so I figure we are among the few experts on the subject. Our plans were to visit our sister-in-law and sister as we travel down through the state.  Both are confined due to accidental falls.

Now some people might go on a cruise to celebrate such an auspicious anniversary; or go dancing, or go to dinner and movie; or celebrate with family or friends at a party; so you may think our choice rather dreary. To be truthful, at our age, just going was excitement enough; and visiting our sister-in-law, Juanita, who fell and suffered five fissions in her pelvis; and my sister, Shirley, who fell and broke her femur bone and had to have a titanium rod from her hip to her knee were incentive enough.  Shirley’s been in hospital and rehab for two months now. Juanita’s prognosis is 4-6 weeks in the hospital.

Our trip;

Our way.

Juanita was in physical therapy when we stopped by the hospital in Nephi to visit her. Her grandson, James, was with her.  She was standing with a walker and rocking back and forth. The physical therapist said she was doing very well. They are trying to build up her muscles and make her strong enough to stand and walk safely.  After Physical Therapy, Juanita regaled us with a delightfully intriguing history of her great grandfather and all the places he lived and all his wives. Whenever he went he made tombstones. His artistry is in many cemeteries throughout the west and beyond. We’re going to search for them next time we go to Orderville.  James has an interesting job in the technical world. The clean room he works in is seven times cleaner than a surgical room in the hospital. He doesn’t have to worry about what to wear to work or even comb his hair. He’s covered from head to toe in a space-age suit.  They make memory microchips. He has a cute little redheaded daughter (he showed us a video) that Juanita wants him to bring down when he comes for his next shift on Thursday.

From Nephi, we drive straight to Cedar City. We eat both breakfast and lunch from our ice chest.  We reminisce about our wedding day; how we went from Kanab and Orderville to St. George for the wedding. The St. George Temple was actually closed but we made an appointment to get married and the Temple President was there. Unfortunately, there were no veils and because it was more than week from when we took out our endowments in the Salt Lake Temple they would not allow DeRay to take me through the veil.  Somehow they improvised but they didn’t cease the pounding and sawing all through the ceremony. 

Salt Lake Temple for endowments. DeRay, Jeanette & parents.
LaVee & Duff Pugh, Amy Heaton Esplin.

President Harold Snow with newly weds.

Bride with little sisters: Carol and Verla

Duff & LaVee Pugh, Amy Esplin, Dick Swapp, DeRay, Jeanette, Carol Lee, Donna Chamberlain, Marilyn Pugh, Dolly Morrison, Georgia Troy Heaton, Lenore Slaugh Crofts. Verla Esplin & Verda Johnson

Jeanette & DeRay at Disneyland 1956

Aunt Ella, Aunt Esther, Aunt Lucy, Aunt Zidie - Mama's sisters.

Uncle Charl stopped by in the afternoon on his way to the ranch.
Uncle Charl was Kanab Stake President for 12 years.
Even the strongest and best of families have problems and because of a cattle dispute with his brother who lived next door, they didn't mingle even at a niece's wedding reception. (Since I didn't read a word about it in the new Heaton Heritage book, maybe I'm wrong.)

Aunt Esther, Aunt Zidie, Aunt Lucy, Aunt Ella, and Mama. 1956

Mama, Aunt Lucy, Aunt Ella, Aunt Zidie, Aunt Esther Sept. 7, 1956
Below sisters 1930

Esther, Zidie, Lucy, Ella, Amy

Grandma (Lucy Elizabeth Carroll Heaton)  with her five daughters:
Esther, Zidie (Kezia), Ella, Amy, & Lucy

Mama, Aunt Lavern, Aunt Ella, Aunt Lucy, Aunt Leon, Uncle Ed,, Aunt May.

Seated: Uncle Fred, Aunt Esther, Aunt Zidie, Uncle Chris.

I don't know who cut their heads off. I think it was my brother, Lynn James.

Uncle Fred, Aunt LaVern, Aunt Ella, Aunt Esther, Aunt Zidie, Aunt Lucy, Uncle Ed, Aunt May, Uncle Chris.

Lucy Carroll Heaton and children

Charl, Esther, Fred, Zidie, Chris, Amy, Ed, Lucy, Sterling, Ella, Gilbert. 1930

All of Mama’s brothers and sisters either came to the wedding or to the reception in Orderville that evening. Aunt Mildred and Uncle Gilbert invited everyone to their house for a wedding breakfast. Kind kin. Then DeRay and I drove to Cedar City to pick up the wedding cake and ended up in Orderville for the reception that evening. We spent our first night in Sringdale on our way to California. We went to the Art Linkletter show, Disneyland that just opened the year before, and Todd-AO movie on a super screen. I slept through it and have never lived it down. We also went to Tijuana for a day. I had never been to California let alone Mexico.

We stopped at Camp Pendleton to visit Jerry, who was in the Marine Corps

 After honeymoon, we settled in Salt Lake where DeRay was attending the University of Utah and I had transferred from the Columbia Iron Mining Company near Cedar City to the Sales Office on the 16th floor of the Walker Bank Building, both for U.S. Steel Corporation.

As with Juanita, we are surprised at how well Shirley looks. She had a scare a week ago and had to go back to the hospital in ICU.  We took her outside to get some sunshine since her son and daughter-in-law and her daughter are all back to teaching school and don’t get there early enough to take her out. It’s been chilly for a few days too. 

Shirley said the book we made for her was a hit (At a Monster Heaton Reunion, we took pictures of first cousins and other relatives and had them write a get-well note to her.). We helped her put in new hearing aid batteries so we could converse.

I asked Shirley when she thought she’d get back to reading and writing. She said she has a hard time seeing to read so I offered her my reading glasses. Later in the evening when we went back over, Keenan and Amy Jayne were there. “Are these your glasses?” Amy asks. “Yes.” “She has three pair just like them in her drawer so you may as well take them back.” I forgot them when we left.  Next day when we go in, she has them on. Because her oxygen wasn’t hooked up, I took them off to hook her up. She immediately picked the glasses up and put them back on so I left them. Best dollar I ever spent!

We went to a Chinese Buffet for our official celebration. By happenchance, we made a good choice.  I was most interested in the sushi but to get to the sushi you had to pass by the (real) ice cream freezer.  Four creamy flavors. I could stand it no longer. I stand up and scoop a chocolate and chocolate mint bowl full. I would eat one sushi –  one of every kind – and one bite of ice cream. Don’t knock it until you try it. Sweet and salty. Hot and cold. Hard and soft.  I can not believe how they compliment each other. I am in heaven.  Next I have vanilla and strawberry and finish off with chocolate again. I may have created a new high in cuisine pleasure. 

DeRay and Eddy had sweet and sour chicken, iced shrimp, pork spare ribs and all the usual delectables, with ice cream and cookies at the end in a very normal boring way. They are just not adventuresome like me.

Oh yes. Most people don’t share their room with a third on their anniversary but we are different.  We are a threesome. In the afternoon, Ed gives me a kiss on my cheek. “There’s a kiss for your anniversary.  Happy Anniversary, Mom,” he says with a million-dollar-smile.  I’m rich (even without money, as Ed said all the time he was growing up.).

Our trip;

Our way.

We visited Shirley again while Keenan and Amy Jayne were there.  We had a lovely visit with them, catching up on family news and current concerns. Shirley looked beautiful in her turquoise gown and snowy white hair.  I thought she had just been to the beauty parlor. The bathroom is almost finished and hopefully her homecoming will be soon.

DeRay was too tired and Ed was too full to go swimming so I went by myself, enjoying the pool and hot tub at the motel in divine silence.

Brent and Jan called to wish us a happy anniversary at 11 PM; midnight their time.

Next morning, we didn’t even wake up until 8:05. I was mad at DeRay all night because I thought he stole my heating pad.  I searched for it off and on all night long to soothe my aching joints and muscles. In the morning I found it on the floor under the pillow. “Why didn’t you follow the cord with your hand?” DeRay asked. “I did and every time, all I found was the clock!” 

Did they ever serve a full breakfast: We started off with waffles with yogurt and syrup; hot cereal with raisins, craisins, colored coconut, brown sugar, chocolate chips; 2% or skim milk; scrambled or hard boiled eggs; bacon, pastries, orange or apple juice, coffee or hot chocolate, bananas, apples, oranges; bottled peaches and cottage cheese.

Then we all went swimming and they were very sorry they had not gone the night before. The couple who had been in the Jacuzzi when we arrived went out on the deck to sun. As I swam I watched the woman put what I thought was a pen in her mouth but then smoke billowed out her nose and ears and mouth – well, maybe not her ears but it seemed so. The whole premises, including all the rooms are non-smoking but I didn’t turn her in. I think we just witnessed our first viewing of an e-cigarette.

We got permission to check out an hour late so we didn’t have to rush swimming. We barely made it by noon. Off to bid our final farewell to Shirley.

“Better check to see if she’s breathing,” DeRay says when we walk in. Her oxygen isn’t hooked up and she’s slumped over sleeping. “Shirley, why isn’t your oxygen hooked up?” “They said they’d be right back.” We hooked her up and visited for about an hour. Still no one came. Then we noticed that her button to call for a nurse was on her bed totally out of her reach. We fastened that to her wheelchair and she pushed it. Still it was 10-15 minutes before anyone came. “Shirley, what did you want?” “She was without oxygen when we came in. Her call button was out of reach,” I complain soundly. “Oh, Shirley, I don’t know who left you here. I am so sorry. Can we do anything for you?” She needed to go to the bathroom too.

Also, the foot rests were not on her wheelchair. They told us the night before that her feet should never dangle. We had put them on yesterday so we could wheel her outside.

We thought Juanita’s family may have overkilled assigning someone in the family to be with her all the time but now we think they might be right. Shirley doesn’t have that many children or grandchildren close by so it’s not feasible for them but I will be happy when she is able to leave.  It haunts me.

She walked with the walker today putting full weight on both feet. She is very pleased and doesn’t mind bragging about it.

Shirley thought she was supposed to be in class which we figured was physical therapy so I walk down the hall to see if anyone is there. The doors are locked. As I walk back, I read the names on the doors: Swen Swenson, Jay Hunsaker, Russell Sevy, Tom Urie, Deloras Swanson, Irene Mallas, Katherine Higles, Toy Redden, Lewis Sharp, Sheila Lorita, Karen Harris, Martha Verter, Clarence Perkins, Charles Schneider, Ivan Matheson, Soiled Linen . . .Who would name their child “Soiled”, I wonder in dismay, especially when your last name is “Linen”?

As we are leaving, the handicap bus is outside the front door. Two women in wheelchairs are pushing themselves through the double sets of automatic doors. One asked the other: “Are you going to the movie with us?”

“What movie are you going to see?” I butt in.

“Don’t know. Don’t care. We just want to get out of here for a little while.”

Because it is 1:30 and Ed is precise about eating schedules, we stop at the first (and only) rest stop with tables.  We will long remember our lunch on a lovely warm September day in the shade of the picnic sets: sliced cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, w/hummus. Rice pudding, string cheese, Lays Kettle Cooked Wasabi Ginger-flavored Potato Chips. Ed had a peanut butter sandwich too. “I don’t call potato chips and rice pudding a lunch,” he insists.

Home safely.

I call that The Perfect Anniversary Trip.

Selfies aren't very flattering - especially when you don't have much to work with!

A strong silent love abidith for lo these more than 59 years; in triumphs and trials, in joy and in sorrow; in sickness and in health; for better or for worse,  from skinny to fat; for richer or poorer; faithful to each other but never quite forsaking all others.