“I was born on Thursday, June 1, 1922 in Room 207 of LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. I suppose June 1 is a pretty good day for a birthday since I share my birthday with my great-great grandpa Brigham Young, President Kimball’s wife Camilla, and of course, Marilyn Monroe!” -Ned Winder
We love and miss you SO much.
We hope everyone did something nice for someone else today in memory of our wonderful Dad/Grandpa/Grandpa-Great!
3 comments:
Andrea, Thank you, thank you for posting these pictures. I just hope everyone saw them!
Is that a spot I see on the porsche? (Just kidding, Grandpa!)
Random comments from perfect strangers...I was hoping to send this letter to Brother and Sister Winder. But, when I got online to see if the address I had was still correct, I found your blog. I will post it here, since I don't know how to get it to Sister Winder.
Thanks.
Dear Brother & Sister Winder,
In another attempt to get organized, I was rearranging some pictures. I took the back off a frame that had been in use since my wedding and out fell a small envelope with your return address on it. Inside the envelope was a card that said “two to-gether forever” and two two-dollar bills. All of a sudden all the busy tasks of life took a back seat as I returned to that day ten years ago when my husband took me to the temple.
It was President Hinckley’s 90th birthday. You were very busy. But you agreed to perform my marriage at 4:20 in the afternoon at the request of my sweet grandmother, Irene Johnson. You told us a story about fighting with your wife about the size of your parent’s yards. You taught us that many small things will come between us, but we needed to remember how much greater eternal love was than any of them.
I was a head-strong girl, who wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to get married. I had seen so much unhappiness in so many relationships. I was no stranger to pop culture that teaches young people that love exists until you say “I do.” At that point, men change and magic dissipates. I was very afraid of trusting someone and making covenants only to find that real love doesn’t really exist. Still, I was following the spirit. I just didn’t know if it would make me happy.
I wanted to write to you as we come up on my tenth wedding anniversary and tell you that you cannot begin to imagine how much it meant that you took the time to perform my wedding ceremony and bless my life with your experience. A lot has changed. My husband and I finished college, we moved away from family so he could attend medical school. Four years later, we moved across country again, to our current location, for residency. Along the way, we were blessed with four perfect children. I hope there will be more.
It’s been far from “ideal” by the world’s standards. The kids are all very close together. At one point I had four and the oldest was five. We’ve never had any money and we’ve always been the odd ones in our peer groups. Most medical student are swinging bachelors. But, we have been blessed beyond measure and we have been happy. I’m not talking about the “crying your eyes because of your trials, but knowing that Heavenly Father is leading you somewhere wonderful” kind of happy. I’m talking about the “laughing yourself silly and waking up every morning anticipating everything that could possibly happen today” kind of happy.
I tell my friends I am living the epic love story. It’s the kind of love that people write about, where my heart leaps at the sound of a door opening because it means he’s home. It’s the kind of love that I never thought actually existed. I am beginning to understand what eternal love actually means. I am trying to teach it to the young women I have frequently been blessed to work with, but they still stare at me much the way I probably did at my leaders when I was their age.
Anyway, I remembered that you said you collected the wedding announcements of those you sealed. I just thought you might enjoy my story. And, I wanted to thank you for writing the preface to it. I know there’s still a lot more to go, but I also know that whatever plot twists might come, it is a very happy story.
Love always,
Amy Hancock
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