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Jean was an unusual Latter-day Saint. She accepted the Joseph
Smith story and believed in it. She accepted tithing and the Word of
Wisdom and practiced it. On the other hand, she had little time and
interest in genealogy and many of the accoutrements. She loved Latter-
day Saint who were observant livers of the word, but she had no time for
phonies. In her later years she gave up going to church but she always
maintained LDS standards in her personal life and in mine. I found this
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gradually realized what was essential in the church and how she recog-
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When we were in Saudi Arabia, I was a department head and we were
able to do whatever we chose to do. We used our vacations to not only
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Chevron, as mentioned, my salary was substantially reduced. Despite
our reduction in salary, she never once at any time expressed regret or
sorrow or any blame on me for the reduced standard of living we were
now accepting. When we paid tithing, or when we donated $6,000 or
$7,000 toward the building fund (in addition to tithing), she supported
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ways respect the fact that she accepted it and showed no regrets. I hope
her grandchildren can look back on the times when their incomes are
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In summary, I married a strong-minded woman who loved me
and loved my children and was a stalwart in doing so. I honor her and
respect her for that. Love can seem like an ephemeral thing, but the
qualities that she showed were important in the lives of myself and our
children, and she dearly loved her grandchildren.
The older one gets the more you appreciate your own children.
Being a parent is perhaps the toughest job anyone ever has. Each child
is a unique spirit and as parents we have an important but not controlling
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the moment of birth; it is one of the strongest evidences one could pos-
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