A Sense of Humor

 

 

     In the twilight of my life with a condemned sentence hanging over my head, I find myself more and more analyzing my life and remembering the people, places and things. It was over 70 years ago when an innocuous incident happened that, looking back on it now, helps me realize that God has a sense of humor and that he specifically uses it to teach His children a lesson.  I was only a teenager. In the Kanab Stake, which consisted of The Moccasin Ward, Fredonia, Kanab North and South, Orderville, Glendale and Alton wards. Mt. Carmel came to Orderville for Mutual only in those days. Well, it was the Gold and Green Ball. Each ward somehow chose a queen.  (In my memory, it was the Gold and Green Ball but I thought Gleaners had to be 18 years old, so maybe it was just a Sweethearts Ball or a Junior Gold and Green Ball.) The night of the ball, a queen from each ward all gathered together in a room in the stake center in Kanab and they drew out a name to determine who would be queen. I was representing the Orderville Ward and my twin and classmate Flossy Roundy was representing the Alton Ward.

     The first name they drew: Ta-Dah! “Florence Roundy”.

     Hum-hawing around, the lovely stake leaders somehow managed to draw again. Again it came out Florence Roundy.

     They did it three times and finally had to crown her Queen of the Ball in front of the entire crowd.  

     Yes, God has a sense of humor and diverse ways to teach his children life’s most important lessons.

     Flossy, as we called her, said herself that she was pretty in two ways: 1) Pretty ugly and 2) Pretty apt to stay that way. She was short, dumpy, cross-eyed, and freckled-faced. But she was fun. I’m sure she and God were in cahoots.

     She married well, had a nice family. We kept in touch through the years. She ended up in Ogden and we lived in Kaysville. She tended my kids on a couple of occasions when we were desperate with Ed’s medical problems.

     The summer of 1992, we went to Russia.  We took a streetcar to church and the second elder we met was Elder Roundy from Glendale—little tiny Glendale right next to little tiny Orderville.  What are the chances of meeting another Valley High graduate in far-away Moscow?  His aunt was none other than Flossy, my twin.

A year later, I called her up to wish her a HAPPY BIRTHDAY on the mutual anniversary of our births.  “Hello, is Florence there?”  “Florence?” her husband asked hesitantly, “. . .we buried her last week.”

Why did I think she would never die?  I thought she was invincible even though I knew she had leukemia. Well, how would you feel if your twin died and you found out on your birthday?  October 3, 1993

Bet’ja she and God are finding plenty to laugh about even after 30 years.