So I just found out that and international gateway which allows me to access most of my favourite international websites is 'down' like busted, like not playing games .. so now I have an broadband enforced exile on one of my most addictive online forums ldslinkup. What the heck ! How will the girl survive.
Well yesterday I took my mum on a belated birthday lunch. We took off to Jupiters Casino on the Gold Coast, one of three casinos in Queensland. For the smorgasbord lunch, $20 a pop ! pretty cheap if you ask me. Considering our Casino is not a crowded smoke filled joint and the food was delicious. On our way back we stopped by Main Beach and watched all the Kite Surfers doing their stuff. I am seriously thinking about getting my baby bro lessons on that stuff (for Christmas or something). I found a place on the Gold Coast that has a special rate for under 18yrs + 1 adult ! hah which would be me.
Anyways on the way back home mum and I had a bit of time to chat. I have never heard her conversion story before. So we talked about it, and alot about her family. It was a really really nice time, I didn't even realise the radio had stopped. Wanna hear her story ? do ya !
My mum had quite an upbringing the following is from what she told me. To begin with I should tell a little about what my grandma was like, since she played a big influence in my mum being a member of the church. My grandma was a very very strong woman, she was the kind that all the women back in those days would come to if they had trouble. She was the one that would stand at the top of a neighbours stair hosing down a drunken husband coming home to cause trouble. Alot of the men were drunks in those days, it was a way of life. We figured it had alot to do with the war and the way they would handle it, through drinking. Unfortunately not all men are happy drunks. Anyways, my grandmothers grandfather was very into the bible and quite a religious man. Grandmother would talk about coming home from school and him sitting under a mango tree, and her and her siblings would have to recite a scripture to him, to receive a free mango. I even have a picture of my grandmother as a young girl receiving an award for some scripture chase kind of thing. Her family were devout catholics.
My mothers family had moved to a new area in Brisbane, which was too far away from school for my mum to attend. So she quit school, she was 14, and found a job working for a florist in the city. One day she was walking across the busiest street in the city, when an american indian mormon missionary stopped her dead in her tracks and started talking to her. I can just imagine the scene ! back in the early 60's a white red headed girl, talking to a tall dark american mormon missionary right in the middle of the busiest street . hah . Anyways she said she didn't understand a word he said, but he somehow got her details. When she got to her job and told the ladies of her experience they went off. Telling her he just wanted to steal her and take her back to the USA with him. She got a bit scared, but figured, he wouldn't have her information anyways.
When she got home that night, her mother had informed her that some missionaries had visited. Yikers. and that she had made arrangements for her to go to church with them on Sunday. YIKERS. My mum said "are you joking?" Grandma said "no, it will be good for you to meet some young people your age". My mum went along to church, that was just over 40 years ago, she never stopped going.
About 2 weeks after visiting the church she informed her mother she wanted to be baptised, this time it was grandmas turn "are you joking?". Grandma wouldn't allow her to be baptised till she was 21. My mother persisted though and 6 months later Grandma sat her down and realised she was serious about this church thing and let her be baptised. The day of her baptism, my mother grandmother and father disowned her (grandma and grandfather had broken up quite a few years earlier). At 14 years of age my mum became the sole member in her family of the church. She has stayed a strong member ever since.
Another great feat. Back then she said there were many young folk like herself who joined the church : and the missionaries did fellowship them alot, they were the leaders of the youth groups. Many of the older generation would look down their noses at them and comment that they were only there for the missionaries (nice to see judgemental church members haven't changed eh !?). Mum related about 5 of her closest friends from back then who she had met at church and like her had joined the church around the same time and were about the same age. You know all of these women are strong members and leaders in the church now. I think they are all amazing.
Later on in life mum found out that earlier on in the piece, grandma had actually contacted the church authorities to see what the church was all about. Which is why she was quite willing to let my mum go along. She took great interest in what my mum did. She never ever joined the church though. A few years before she died at the ripe old age of 87 she came very very close. A boy from our ward had actually tracked into her on his mission (she lived in another state). He said he gave her all the discussions, she had already read the book of mormon and accepted it and they had a program and all. There was just one thing she could not give up, smoking. So she informed the missionaries she could not get baptised knowing she could not live all the commandments correctly.
I asked mum about that too. wanna hear that story !?
My mums oldest brother was killed in a motorcycle accident. My grandmother took that very very badly. Which is another story, but personal one. Because of her reaction to certain situations that were happening around her (eg one neighbour commented, that it was unfortunate the good son was killed and not the ratbag one, my grandmother turned on her heels and left before she killed that neighbour), she went to the doctor to find help. She told him he had to give her something before she hurt someone. The doctor told her "Milly you have two choices, 1. I can prescribe valium or 2. You can take up smoking." My grandmother chose option 2. And smoked for the rest of her life. Eventually dying of lung cancer. But she learnt earlier on to smoke to help make her life more bearable.
I love my grandma and my mum and am greatful these women are a part of my life.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment