Tuesday, June 14, 2016 – Sprinkler repair, Hydrangeas, Corn, Letters from home, Lyon Drug

Scott Higley, my boss from FM, came to Carthage early this morning. We spent several hours working on all of the broken sprinkler heads on the grounds of the Visitor’s Center. Last week I worked on the sprinkler system for a whole day but I couldn’t finish fixing all of them because I ran out of spare parts. This morning Scott brought a whole box full of extra sprinkler heads and nozzles and we still ran out of spare parts before the job was done. 

Next we were off to The Bushnell House to prune a large pine tree. It was a safety issue. The limbs of the tree were too close to the ground and they blocked the view of anyone driving out of the driveway onto the street. 

 

It is interesting what Scott told me. He said that he gets request for service everyday from everyone in the mission or the staff working at FM to fix something or prune something, haul it, clean it, fix it, etc. Most of the requests for service are small pidley things and he usually ignores them. But, Scott said when a request for service comes across his desk that is a “Safety Issue,” he is on it right now. Safety issues are his number one priority. That’s why Scott came out to Bushnell House personally. The low lying limbs were a safety Issue.

After Scott left I finished up at Bushnell, I watered the flower beds but I didn’t mow there today. Tuesday is my usual day for mowing at Bushnell but since there has been no rain and it’s hot, the grass hasn’t been growing very fast. It just doesn’t need to be mowed as often.

We received mail from home! It was a large envelope with several letters inside. Our son Jacob and his family all wrote Grandma & Grandpa letters as part of their Sunday family time. Each letter was precious with personal messages from our grandchildren. They were great letters. Even the youngest scribbled on a sheet of paper for us.

 

This afternoon Sis. Johnson had a haircut appointment in Nauvoo. Her hair dresser is the same barber I went to last week to get my haircut. His name is Robert Saint. His salon/barber shop is in the Nauvoo Inn Suites. Robert is not only a hairdresser but he is also a florist. He had a flower shop in St. Louis, MO for many years. He’s the one that told Sis. Johnson and I about the wholesale florist in Quincy where Sis. Johnson bought flowers for her Sunday Relief Society Lesson.

This afternoon before our “Rendezvous in Old Nauvoo” performance we had some free time so we took the tour of the “Lyon Drug” historic site in Nauvoo. I learned a lot about 1840’s drug stores. For example they weren’t called drug stores; they were called “Apothecaries.”

We were told the story of Windsor Lyon and his wife Sylvia (owners of the Lyon drug) who lost three of their children to childhood diseases, each under the age of three years old. Their daughter Marian’s body was brought to Joseph Smith the day after her death (Sunday, March 20, 1842) as he was preaching to a large assembly in a grove near the unfinished Nauvoo Temple. Upon seeing the lifeless body of this two-year-old child, Joseph changed his speech and spoke on the salvation of children.  Joseph said, “The Lord takes away many, even in infancy, that they may escape the envy of man, and the sorrows and evils of this present world; they were too pure, too lovely, to live on earth: therefore, if rightly considered, instead of mourning, we have reason to rejoice as they are delivered from evil, and we shall soon have them again.”

What a blessing to all parents of children that die young. We are so blessed in the church to have the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation and know we can see and be with our loved one after this life.