It's In

Hi people,
I just sent off my application for graduate school.  I'm applying for the MEd. in Curriculum Studies- online through U of Hawaii.  I'm excited but nervous.  If i get accepted we'll be here until 2014 while I work on this and Ephraim keeps doin' what he's doin'.  I'll keep you posted.

Just had to tell someone.  Thanks.

We've Got Friend(s) in Pennsylvania, Part II

After seeing the Korhmans and Sharon, we visited the Bernheisers at Tracy's home. Lisa and her family live nearby, so everyone came over for a nice get-together.

Mom, Pauline, John, and Dad

Me with Ruth, Shellie and Phebe, Lisa and Malia (sp?) who is her youngest 

Mom and Tracy

We've Got Friend(s) in Pennsylvania, Part I

On Dec 26, 2011 Shellie and I (with two daughters each) went with Mom and Dad to visit Reading.

Blogger is not making it easy to add captions to these photos, so here's a description of each of these photos:

Mom and Shellie with Sharon Feick

Dad with Pat Kohrman (bald because of cancer treatments)

Mom with Naomi

Jeffrey and Chip

Molly and Ruth Kohrman with my Ruth

(The only missing Korhman is Brian, who was with his in-laws for Christmas.)

Chip is married to Breezi ("with an i"), and they have 4 kids and live in Columbus, OH

Molly and Ruth are both single. Molly lives in the DC area, and Ruth lives at home to take care of her ailing parents.

Jeff was recently married and lives in the Reading area.
It was great to see them all!

How Do You Speak at the Funeral of Someone You Don't Know?

Exactly how Jason was asked to conduct and speak at the funeral of a stranger is a long story. The short version is that Larry (the deceased) and his wife Pam used to live here, a lot of their family is here, and their burial plots are here. They knew Larry was dying, so they came from out of state to be here for the end. Of the three Bloomington bishops, Jason was the one they contacted, and he was available and willing to do it.

The week of Larry's funeral happened to be the week that Jason dropped his phone in water, so it was out of commission. Coordinating arrangements with Sister Tibbs, our ward's Relief Society president, was a challenge, especially as Pam, the widow, changed her mind a few times about the starting time of the service. Even the morning of the funeral, Jason didn't know what was on the program (besides his own remarks). He pressed Pam for details until he had a semblance of a program, which he hastily scrawled on a 3 x 5 card.

The day of the funeral was the day Steph and her kids were planning to come for a 4-day visit. After they arrived at noon-ish, I thought I would leave the kids in her care and run to the church to take Jason his coat and deliver a phone message (since his cell phone wasn't working). So as not to look out of place in the funeral atmosphere, I pulled on a skirt and tights.

I arrived at the conclusion of the viewing and discovered that I was one of the few women wearing a skirt. The corduroys I had been wearing would have seemed dressy among this crowd. When Jason discovered that I had come without the kids, he asked if I could stay and say the opening prayer, "so I don't have to," he explained.

When the funeral itself began, and Sister Tibbs began playing the organ, I realized that either Jason or I would have to conduct the music. (But actually, this crowd wouldn't have noticed had no one done it.) So, I led the hymns and gave the opening prayer. Sister Tibbs played the organ, offered the closing prayer, and coordinated the meal that followed the burial. And Jason offered the family prayer, conducted the funeral, spoke, and dedicated the grave. Except for two daughters who read Larry's obituary, no one from the family felt comfortable participating, so the three of us covered all the bases.

Jason had been in contact with Larry and Pam's bishop (Larry had been a member for only 6 months, Pam had been a member for longer), who sent a paragraph about Larry to be read. The rest of Jason's remarks consisted of reading from the Book of John about Christ's resurrection and from Elder Wirthlin's talk "Sunday Will Come." It was just right.

Later, Jason expressed embarrassment about how the funeral had gone. But I think it met everyone's expectations, especially for the non-church-going crowd, like this crowd seemed to be. At a funeral they expect some hymn-singin', some Bible-readin', and some prayin', and that's what they got. The service was reverent, dignified, and best of all, it was less than an hour! Pam, the widow, was especially pleased, so that's all that mattered.

My Emo Tribute to the Old Treanor Family Table

[This is a copy of an email that True sent to his family. I thought it was a fun perspective of True's memories and a good announcement of our new furniture. :) sgt]

Hi everyone,

It is with regret that I inform you that the old Treanor Family Table was decommissioned on Wednesday, December 28, 2011. To mark the sad passing of the Table, I have included some photographs documenting the Table's last moments with our family.


Me and the Table. The Table came into my life when I was approximately 5-6 years old, meaning that I sat at the Table for almost 24 years of meals. I remember lots of things that happened at the Table. There was the infamous grape juice drink and funny joke occurrence: one of us boys was drinking grape juice at the Table while somebody told a funny joke. The grape juice drinker got the punchline and proceeded to spew grape juice all over Mommy's clean white walls. I wish I knew what the joke was - that could be a pretty powerful secret weapon. I remember the time Daddy was holding baby Cleave at the Table. After dinner was over, Daddy lifted Cleave onto the Table so that he was standing on the Table. Then Daddy made Cleave dance around while he sang "I've Got No Strings on Me" from Pinocchio. It was hilarious and all of us boys laughed a ton. I vaguely remember when Grandpa Treanor died. The part I remember the most was eating dinner as our little family, and then seeing Daddy start crying. From what I recall, Daddy hunched over the Table and Mommy came over to him and comforted him until he felt better and stopped crying. I remember the Christmas in Cheyenne, Wyoming when Mommy made enough Christmas cookies to cover the entire Table. It was mind-boggling as a child to see so many cookies in one place. The missionaries came over one evening and Mommy told them to take some cookies home with them. They grabbed 1-2 cookies apiece. Then Mommy said, "No, I mean TAKE some COOKIES home with you!" Each of the missionaries (I think there were 4 of them) ended up going home with 1-2 plates per person! If memory serves me right, I believe I also opened my mission call at the Table. Mommy made a great dinner to celebrate the occasion. After we ate, I opened my letter and got emotional when I saw that I was going to be serving an Asian speaking language, even though I had to stay stateside because of my kidney condition. I remember Mommy coming around the Table and hugging and kissing me. Everybody was really excited, but sad too at the same time.

A chair of many colors. I remember that Mommy recovered the chair cushions a few times to match her dishes. I think that the grand color scheme came from the "Families Can Be Together Forever" cross-stitch piece she did, which still hangs in the Texas home to this day. The coloring in the cross-stitch piece has light blues and light pinks, which matches the dishes we had growing up and the covers on the Table's old chairs. If you look closely at the above picture, you can see that the original color was a cream-ish fabric (not plastic covered) with a tan criss-cross pattern.

Staying together. Speaking of the chairs, the side support beams of the chairs were constantly coming apart. I never seemed to mind that, though. I always enjoyed lining up the friction pegs in the tops of the chairs with the sides of the chairs and banging them together again with my hands. It gave me the feeling that the chairs could last another year, and that I was actually able to keep something "maintained". It was sort of like repairing the chairs, even though it had to be done at least weekly. It also reminded me of the garage that we had in Cheyenne, Wyoming. I remember going into the garage one day while Daddy was at work and looking at all of the tools he had received from Great-Grandpa Nelson. I decided to organize the tools, even though I didn't know what they did. I just sorted them based on how they looked. When Daddy got home and saw what I'd done, he was really happy. Later on, we used those tools to do our best to repair the chairs' old legs. The braces just kept coming apart. I remember working with Daddy, trying to glue and wire them back together. I think the only thing that finally worked was screwing the pieces back together. Eventually most of the braces came off completely and got thrown away, since the chairs stood just fine without them.

Cracked, but holding. Speaking of legs, the Table's legs weren't in the best shape either, but they worked. I remember taking the Table's legs off every time we packed up our home and putting them back on again every time we moved into a new place. It was a fairly easy, non-technically challenging job, so it was assigned to me and the other boys. I also remember how cool it was that we could pull the Table apart and make it bigger or smaller by adding or removing leaves. I also have memories of hiding under the Table and playing forts, and Chase telling me that he didn't actually eat his peas or lima beans, but stuck/squashed them under the Table when Mommy and Daddy weren't looking. The Table's legs were also probably affected by the beating the Table took each time Daddy told a funny joke, which he accentuated with a pound on the Table that usually startled us little kids. Good times. :-)

The new table. So, we have a new table now which we got for a crazy good deal at IKEA. I was excited at first, but found myself becoming very emotional while I took apart the old Table and prepared to give it away to the Bishop's sharehouse in our area. I couldn't help feeling like I had betrayed the Table, after it had been so faithful for so many years. It was very hard to part with something that was around for so long and accumulated many, many memories. It's my hope that the new family who acquires the Table will love it and enjoy it, since the Table was so good to the Treanor Family. Table, my mom and dad, my brothers and sisters, my wife and children, and many friends and relatives have gathered around you for years and had our hearts warmed (and our stomachs filled). Thank you so much for serving our family so faithfully. May you soon rest from your labors, the constant, vigilant task of continually standing on your feet and supporting everyone around you. God bless you until we meet again in that great dining room in the sky.

Love you all lots,

True