Uncle Gordon

My Uncle Gordon passed away on May 4, and with his memorial services today I’ve been reflecting on my connections to him through the years.

Mom and Uncle Gordon in 2019

When I was young, our family used to make the long drive from Portland, Oregon to Southern California to visit my Mom’s parents, Grandma and Grandpa Norman. While in California, we usually stayed with Aunt Jean (Mom’s sister) and Uncle Gordon and all our Taylor cousins. They later told us that they called us their “Disneyland Cousins” because even though we could climb the huge Jacaranda tree in their front yard to watch the Disneyland fireworks at night, they usually only actually got to go to the park when we were in town to visit.

Just a few months after returning to BYU after my mission, Jean and Gordon moved from California to Provo, Utah, in a neighborhood just north of the Provo temple. It was apparently just in time, because I noted in my journal that Alan and I were using their driveway to try to fix the water pump in my car within a week of them having moved in. Jean and Gordon played the role for me that Shannon and I have in more recent years played for college-student nieces and nephews: local family to share some time and a good meal with occasionally, not to mention providing a place to store some boxes when going home for the summer. It says something that of the maybe four phone numbers I have in my head, their Provo home’s number is one of them.

Part of that also owes to it being my phone number for a while, since when Jean and Gordon went on their mission together, they let my good friend Sang Kim and I move into their basement while we wrapped up our schooling. That I lived there had some influence on getting to know Shannon. The rest of our student ward lived in the King Henry apartments, so when there were activities and events around the complex, Sang and I spent the in-between times in girls’ apartments rather than driving back home.

As Shannon and I entered our early marriage years, Jean’s health didn’t always allow her to be as involved, but Uncle Gordon attended our family events, baby blessings, baptisms, piano recitals and through to Gerrit’s wedding reception a couple of years ago. Shannon and I have lived our married life away from our parents, so Gordon was a nearby family tie and support.

Gerrit’s baptism day, photo taken by Uncle Gordon

It is thanks to my uncle that I know the Portuguese word paralelepípado. We both served missions in Brazil, so he would always greet me with “Como vai?” and occasionally quiz me on somewhat obscure vocabulary words. He was a real pioneer of the gospel in Brazil. When he arrived (by ship!) there were only 26 missionaries in the country. There are now more than that many missions in Brazil.

He was a warm and caring man who will be missed.

Nest Shrinkage

The high schools here do an alternating day schedule so that students have half their classes on “A” days and the other half on “B” days. They also publish a Google Calendar that students and families can subscribe to in order to keep track of which day it is — especially helpful after long weekends and holidays. Since my “magic mirror” also shows calendar items, it was easy to glance and see what the school day would be like. I unsubscribed from that calendar yesterday.

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Rio

If you just want the highlights, see the video at the bottom of the page. Otherwise, read on…

When Afton was working on her class schedule for high school a couple of years ago, and I saw that a Portuguese class was being offered, I bribed her into taking it by telling her I’d taker her to Brazil if she did.

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New York

London, Paris, New York — the three that always seem to top the list of iconic world cities. I visited the first two many years ago but had never made it to the one in my own country until this past August, when we went for our family summer vacation.

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A Doe, A Deer

A deer, its normality in your life is probably based on how many times you’ve gone hunting, but this deer was different. Tiny, frail and walking up and down Center Street, not a very good mix. By the time we saw the fawn it had gathered quite the entourage of concerned people, and some unconcerned people. Namely the police, I don’t think any of us are a huge fan of road kill but they advised us to leave it alone in case it’s mother came back for it. Most others left it at that; however this deer was wandering within view of our house, and we did not want to be the witness of some grizzly accident. Someone driving by informed us that the deer had been wandering around this area for at least a day. The likelihood of it’s mother returning was slim. 

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Gerrit’s Homecoming

“He’s done already!? Wow! Did that seem fast to you, too?”

That was a pretty typical response from ward members when they learned that Gerrit was finishing his mission to Hong Kong and would be home November 14th. Yes, sometimes it seemed to go fast. Other times slow. And now that he’s home, somewhat dream-like. Did that really all happen?

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