Donna and Midge

Midge was a horse that Donna rode to school. Midge was born in 1928, the same year as Donna. This picture was taken when the 2 of them were 37 years old, in front of the Dolan school. In this picture, Jennie Gay is on Midge and Donna is holding Kathy. The Dolan school had been moved from its original location to the yard of the Myron Berry farm.

Donna and Sequel

Grandma loves horses.  She has been around horses most of her life.  When I was a teenager my parents had sold Grandpa and Grandma a horse names Sugar I, one of their broodmares that they had raised.  They bred the mare to their stud, Beau and got a filly they named Sequel.  Todd bought this filly from Grandpa and Grandma when she was three.  Through the years Grandma has had a special attachment to this mare.  Sequel is now in her twenties and Todd uses her for a vaulting horse in his vaulting club in Cardston, Alberta.  I take Grandma to watch the class every week and she really enjoys seeing her old friend.  We can't leave until Grandma says hi to Sequel.  The Mom of one of the vaulting students took this picture and shared it on the clubs facebook group.  I love this picture and the story behind it.

GRP Reunion 2014

This weekend all of Glen and Donna's children and some of their grandchildren and great grandchildren gathered in Cardston for the 2014 GRP Reunion.  The reunion was held at the reunion center on Friday and Saturday, June 27 and 28.  Their oldest daughter, Glenna was in charge and planned fun activities and good food.

The highlight for the children was a carnival with several games and a fish pond.  I believe the highlight for Donna was having so much of her family around.  She loved visiting and spending time with her children. She enjoyed watching her grandchildren and great grandchildren interact and spend time with each other.

One of the big project of the reunion was to clean out some of Donna's storage unit and disperse the treasures and keepsakes among her descendants.  A family meeting was held in several stages with Donna and her children to discuss issues important to the family and things that need to be taken care of now that Glen is not here anymore.

Many of the grandchildren did not attend due to the fact that most of them had just made the trip to Cardston in April for Glen's funeral.  Those who could not make it were missed.

Here are a few pictures I took at the reunion.  As I gather pictures from others I will add them as well.

The Funeral of Glen Rex Purnell

The funeral and burial of my Grandfather, Glen Rex Purnell took place at the Temple Street Chapel in Cardston on April 21, 2014  It was a very beautiful service.  It was a bitter/sweet experience as we celebrated his life and said goodbye.  I know we will all miss him.  There were viewings held the night before  and just before the service. The family is very grateful to all the family and friends that came to show their love and support to us.
The luncheon for the family prepared by the Cardston 5th ward Relief Society was wonderful. It was nice to be able to be together as a family during this time.
All 8 of his children were able to be there.  He has four grandchildren on missions that could not come and 5 other grandchildren that were not able to attend.  That's not bad for 46 grandkids 

Here is a copy of the obituary, the funeral program and some pictures from the graveside.

Glen's passing

One week ago, Thursday Apr 10, I was at work.  I spent some time in the dinning room trying to encourage Grandpa to eat.  This has been a serious on going struggle since he was admitted to the hospital the end of February.  He did not want any of his food, he only wanted ice cream.  The dinning room said they didn't have any ice cream and he was very disappointed.  Grandma was getting frustrated because Grandpa wouldn't eat his food and only want ice cream.  Eventually Grandma took Grandpa back to their rooms. 
A few minutes later Grandma pushed her button and I answered the call expecting to help Grandpa get settled in his bed.  When I started down their hall I saw Grandma standing in the hallway.  I went up to and put my hand on her shoulder to reassure her.  This had been a very difficult month and a half for her and she has been very worried about Grandpa.  I even said to her that I knew she was worried about Grandpa and that it was very frustrating.  She looked at me and said "I'm just scared because he is not responding"
I quickly went into the room and found Grandpa with his head bent forward and his eyes closed.  I called to him and he didn't respond.  I squated in front of him, shook his shoulder and called him again.  He opened his eyes for a second then closed them and did not respond any further.  I called the LPN and told her to come to his room because he was not responding.
The LPN came right away and took his vital signs, which all seemed normal except his oxygen level which was very low.  I got a hold of my Mom who came right away.  The LPN called the ambulance. 
Grandpa was still nonresponsive except trying to turn on his side where he was the most comfortable.  Just as my shift was ending the ambulance took Grandpa and Mom left with Grandma.  As soon as my shift ended I followed to the hospital.  Mom, Aunt Kathy and Uncle Kevin were already there with Grandma.  Grandpa's brothers, Jay and Reed arrived shortly.
Grandpa remained unresponsive for the rest of the evening while he was in the ER.  They did blood tests and X-rays and decided to keep him overnight for observation.  The blood tests and X-rays came back normal so the next morning they sent him to Lethbridge for a CT scan where it was found he had a stroke.
Grandpa opened his eyes and communicated by squeezing people's hands.  Sometimes he could nod his head yes or no and he did give some people one arm huges but he slept most of the time. 

On Saturday, his daughters, Glenna, Margie and Sue arrived from Idaho and Utah. On Monday his son, David arrived from Holland.  On Tuesday Uncle John arrived from Pittsburgh, and Uncle Jim arrived from China.
The family stayed close to his side for the next two days.  He had many vistors and loved ones come to see him.  It was a blessing to have sooo much family around.  Having all 8 children get here on such short notice from so far away was truly a blessing.

After a week long struggle, Grandpa passed away piecefully in his sleep at 7:37 this morning.  His wife Donna was holding his hand and his son John was by his side.  I was there in the room and began the  calls to notify family that Grandpa had stopped breathing.

Moved into Lee Crest

When Grandpa went into the hospital the end of February it didn't take long to realize that he was not going to be able to move back to the Chinook Lodge where they had been living for the last 9 years.  Last week Grandpa and Grandma moved into Lee Crest, an assisted living residence on the south of Cardston.  Their daughter's Margie and Sue came up from Utah to help with the move. 
There wasn't a couple's room available so they got two rooms.  They use one as their bedroom and one as their living room.
They were sad to leave the Chinook where they had lived for so long and had sooo many good friends.  They were also able to walk to the temple and regularly attended three times a week.
They seem to be settling well into their new home.  They are both getting the care they need.  Grandma thinks she is getting spoiled because she gets so much help.  We are all grateful to the staff there for being so helpful, friendly and patient.  They are making this transition a lot easier for them.

Dolan School

This is another story my Grandma emailed me a few years back.  Then I found this video on her computer.  The video is having difficulties loading so it may or may not appear on this blog.  Either way, now you can her my Grandma tell her story in her own words.

            My formal education started when I was 5 years old.  I remember sitting on my mothers lap.  I even remember where she was sitting - at the kitchen table.  She told me that I needed to start school this fall since Marr and Woodrow were still going to school and I could get started in school going with them.  She was concerned that they would not be going the next year when I would be 6 years old.   She was right.  They did not return the next year.  I rode a horse to school through Grade 6.  The school was 2 miles north of our ranch and I would ride to school on stormy days when I could not see where I was going, but my horse knew where we were going and knew the way, and I knew that he knew the way!  I remember of going to school when the storm was bad enough that my mother would put a scarf over my face up to my eyes and another scarf on my head down to my eyes.  Schools are closed now, when weather gets that bad.  I don’t remember of missing much school because of bad weather.  Only when the temperature got to a dangerous low I would be able to stay home from school.  We did not have cuffs inside of our coat sleeves like they do now.  Many times when we would get to school we would have frozen spots on the under side of our arms where the wind would blow the cold air up the sleeve of our coat.  The teacher would say – “Go get some snow and rub it on the spot so that it thaws slowly and it will not be so painful”.  We carried our lunches in a Rogers Golden Syrup bucket with a bale (the metal handle on the bucket)

            I was the only student in my grade, so I liked to tell people I was the smartest kid in my grade, but likewise I was the worst.   Morgan Berry was a grade ahead of me and I did a lot of his work along with him.  When I finished Grade 6 and they were going to close the Dolan School because we did not have the required 6 students to keep it operating, my teacher told my mother that I could go into Grade 8 when we moved into Cardston, since I had already done all of the Grade 7 work with Morgan, but my mother

would not let me  do it, since I was already a year younger than many of the Grade 7 students.