Today we attended the funeral of our neighbor who passed away this week.  This day was a beautiful tribute to a good man.  His life was dedicated to scouting and I could not hold back my tears as the color guard presented the flag and the casket came into the chapel.  My heart just sobbed as I watched his family follow behind.  The speakers did a wonderful job of honoring Brother Duckworth.  I was especially impressed with his children who spoke  about the things they remember best about their dad.  The whole congregation wept as his 8 year old daughter talked about her dad taking her to the daddy daughter dance and getting their picture taken.  I pray that she will never forget every second of that night.  How he felt dancing with her.  How he sounded when he laughed. How he smelled. The things they talked about.  I just think how easy it would have been for him to say they were too busy to go. But he didn’t. 

So today I learned a lesson.  I need to be more for my children.  I fill so much of my time with little things that in the end won’t matter.  I think back and I can’t remember if my house was dusty or not (by the way, it was always very clean-thanks mom). But I do remember the things I did with my sisters and my parents.  I remember bed time. I remember dinner time. I remember folding the laundry with my mom and cleaning the bathrooms with my mom.  How lucky am I to have such incredible memories and now I need to be better about using my time to make memories with Hailey and Mallory and Annie and Jack.  And sitting next to a sad Mike today I could tell he was thinking the same thing. 

So off I go to tuck in my children and bring them a drink of water "from the toilet" just like my dad always did.  (He always flushed twice!!) 

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 7th, 2008 at 9:01 pm and is filed under Emily, Oquirrh 4th Ward. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.