You may remember in our February 28 posting that we showed to photos of an F/A-18 Super Hornet that Gary made for President Jim Skaggs of the California Anaheim Mission presidency. He was thrilled to receive it, and said that when he retired (he is 53 now) that would be the gift of choice --except a manufactured model, not Gary's hand-painted one. Anyway, he was overjoyed with it. This past Friday morning around 6 our new friend left us. While it's devastating to have him gone, we are at the same time happy that is he is free from this cancer which ravaged his body from who knows where. It's a real mystery. The funeral will be Saturday.
The day lily outside of our apartment is one of Signe's favorite flowers, especially since it can be grown in Utah.
The bouquet of roses to the right is from our next-door neighbor Nancy, who attended Friday night's patriotic concert at Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa. She was so thrilled at our wonderful concert, that this was her way of showing appreciation to us -- especially the Irish song "Danny Boy." Yes, another concert with the Orange County Mormon Choral Organization (OCMCO): with guest artist Collin Raye, a country singer who has two Grammy's to his name, including "Love, Me." (It's on YouTube.) He was wonderful to sing with, and we were both honored to be part of another production almost as good as Messiah in America from March. Four-year old children sang "The Pledge of Allegiance," and then there were about 15 more numbers, ending with "Amazing Grace," complete with bagpipes. When we sang "God Bless the U.S.A." last night and got to the words "I'll stand up next to you," the whole audience stood up in a wave. It was so incredible for all of us in the hall! Collin told us that we were the finest collection of musical talent that he has seen anywhere in the nation. It was a fun evening, but very emotional. Gary was glad that he had his hankie in his tuxedo pocket!
Three nights before our concert (Tuesday) we had two kinds of excitement. Brother and Sister Brague of our Palmyra Ward gave us two tickets to the Pacific Symphony playing with the Magical Strings of Youth. This group consisted of 62 violinists from 4 years old on up to high school -- from Chicago and Orange County. They have played in front of the pope and the President of the United States. They have amazing talent, no matter what they played. Signe said that it's the first concert she's ever gone to where every piece she has played sometime in her life. You can watch them yourselves on YouTube: Magical Strings of Youth. There are several clips.
Well, when we got home we had seven messages on our cell phone. The children were trying to contact us to tell us that our 7-year old grandson Gabriel Hale was lost in the mountains above Diamond Fork (near Spanish Fork Canyon) while hiking with his cousins and others while on a Bradford Reunion at a cabin. Of course Karl and Ana were frantic: neighbors and family helped look for him, as well as rescue people and two helicopters. After being lost for 8 hours (from 4 p.m. until about 12:30 a.m.), he was found by one of the searchers. Our fervent prayers for his safe recovery were answered! All's well that ends well! (Including this blog.)
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