Sisters

Lucy, Jeanette, Shirley 1939

Verla, Carol Lee, Jeanette, Lucy LaRee, Shirley 1948

Growing up in Orderville.

Jeanette, Shirley, Lucy

Verla, Mama, Carol 

1960

St. George Temple grounds - 2005

2007 Mt. Carmel

Jeanette, Shirley, Lucy, Verla, Carol - New Castle 2010

In the 90's, we started having Sister Retreats.

At first, we stayed with Shirley in New Castle,

then for a few years, we stayed in St. George.

We'd go to the Shakespeare and Tuacahn productions..

We'd visit our cousins in Orderville and Moccasin

and our parents, grandparents, and great grandparents in the

Orderville Cemetery.

2011 -Cedar City

 Our brother, Jerry, who lives in SunRiver,
thinks he's a sister and we do too.
He took us on excursions all around the area. 2012

Jeanette, Shirley, Verla, Lucy, Carol 2012 

In 2013, Lucy, who always wanted to be 1st Chair,

left us for a better place.

Visiting 87-year-old Shirley at Bella Terra in Cedar City.

 Carol, Verla, Shirley, Jeanette 2016

 

  Shirley with her good friend from the Beryl Valley, Yula Hunting,

who was raised on the Arizona Strip

and was our guide twice when we went out there to walk where Daddy walked.

She was able to show us all the places Daddy wrote to us from

and the places he talked about.

 

Yula is a cowboy poet

and even though she had a stroke and is now in Bella Terra,

she recited and sang long and evocative poetry to us.

She is fiercely patriotic, as is Shirley.

Is anyone who didn't live through World War II that patriotic?

Yula has an American flag on her walker. 

Keenan, Shirley, Carol, Amy J., Verla

Amy said that if Keenan hadn't come to walk Shirley twice every day,

she would not be walking at all.

     In our family, we write an Esplin Round-Robin Letter* every three months (that has evolved as technology changes). As we got older, we realized life didn't change that much, even in three months. My brother, DeLoy, who has compiled, edited and sent the letters out since its inception, decided we would answer the "life questions". He chooses four or five each time and when we get through, we'll have our life history written. There are 365 questions designed to answer one each day all year. I did it to write my life story so now I just copy from my printed story. Everyone else has to remember and think. Shirley was always the most prolific letter-writer in our family, so after she fell and broke her femur bone and had surgery, we missed her letters. As we visited, Carol, Verla, and I took the opportunity to ask Shirley the questions for our letter that is due October 1. We had so much fun. 

     She didn't just blurt out her answers. She was very deliberate. She would pause and think after each question. We thought maybe we should go visit her before every letter because we learned so much about her. And she remembered a few things about herself that she had forgotten. She was happy to remember them.

     When we came to the question: ONE WORD on how to live successfully.

     “Let’s go on to an easier one,” she pleaded.

     Amy Jayne, her daughter,  said her one word on how to live successfully is “Breathe.”

     “That’s mine too,” we all decided.

     That says a lot for Shirley because she breathes hard all day and all night. It wears you out to watch her chest rapidly go up and down. When all my kids visited her in July, Elizabeth became very concerned about her rapid breathing. Keenan says it's like she's running a race all day and night.

     "What do you think about old age now?" we asked Shirley in parting.

     “It takes a lot of courage,” she confided.

     "Do you feel tired or do you have a lot of energy?"

     “I’m not tired and I don’t have any energy.”

     We asked her how she likes living where she is now.

     “I have some good friends. You get really close to them when you sit at the same table.”

Sisters are forever.

*DeLoy expands on the Round Robin history:

On the RR history you are correct

that it has changed over the years as technology changes.

Initially it was a round robin where each person

took out their last letter and added a new one.

After several years Lynn began to assemble

and mail them out in the snail mail.

After several years I began to do that for the family.

More recently we added the optional Life Questions by consensus,

and  just a few years ago we began to send

the assemble letters package electronically.

We retained the original name of round robin.