Friday, February 20, 2009

A Promis Kept

When I was five years old, my family lived in Ste. Maries, Idaho where the company my dad worked for had a contract. while there, my mother gave birth to a baby girl. Unfortunately, the child was stillborn. I remember my dad taking me to the morgue to see the baby. This was the second stillborn child my mother had given birth to. She named it Jane. I remember a small private burial service at the Ste. Maries Cemetary. Our family were the only LDS members in town - hence no church service. The nearest LDS missionaries were in Spokane, Washington but I don't recall them being at the grave site. We left Ste. Maries the mext year never to return as a family.

My mother died in 1965 but before she went, made my dad promise that he would visit the grave of little Jane. Every year, my dad would say "I've got to go to Idaho and tend to that grave" but year after year, he never did. In 1978, RaNae and I organized a trip to Ste. Maries and asked dad to go with us. for three weeks before we left, we talked about the trip with dad and he seemed eager to go. So on the prescribed date we went to Provo where RaNae helped dad pack his bag. I took it and put it in the car. We locked the house, went to the car, opened the door and dad hesitated and said "I'm not going" and walked back into the house. To this day I don't know why he made that decision but nothing we said or did could get him to go. So, we went alone.

We traveled up I-15 into Montana where it intersected with I-90 and took I-90 west to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho and then south toi Ste. Maries. We arrived there on a Sunday and went to the cemetery but could not find little Jane's grave. We asked around and found out who the mayor was, called him and he gave us the name and phone number of the Sexton. We called him and he obliged by meeting us at the cemetery and locating the grave. We cleaned the small simple stone that lay flush with the ground and decorated it with flowers.

While in Ste Maries, we found one of the two houses we lived in, took pictures and left. Incidentally, we found out that there was an LDS ward in Ste. Maries part of the Spokane Stake. No - we didn't go to church. We traveled south to Boise, Idaho and thence east on I-84 to I-15 and then back to Salt Lake City. We had a enjoyable trip for a worthwhile cause.