Grandma McLeod

After 97 years full of love, my beautiful grandma Hazel McLeod passed away today. My grandma Zoe Suzuki passed away earlier this year as well, and even though I am not good at keeping up my blog, I had to make 2 entries about each one because of their profound influence on my life and their examples of living such remarkable lives. The other post is entitled Grandmas and Camels. Both of my grandma raised my amazing parents, and because of their legacy I am blessed with the gospel and my family, the 2 most important things in life.

I was reading a book entitled The Moral Imagination, by John Leaderach, and he was discussing an interesting point  about the present we live in. In his view, the present is not a fleeting moment that passes, but a "two-hundread-year present."  We do this by subtracting the date of birth of the oldest person we have known in our lives from the projected passing-on date of the youngest person in our family. His logic is that our present "is made up of lives that touched (us) and those (we) will touch." It is an interest concept to ponder as we realize this life is about our history of loving and serving others. I thought this very interesting in light of my 97 year old grandma passing away (the oldest person I know). Her life has touched me and it made me think of the many important lessons she has taught me that contribute to the person I and and the present I live.    

What Hazel McLeod has taught me:

1. To develop a love for chocolate. I think she ate a piece of chocolate everyday and she was witty, healthy, and happy as ever all 97 years of her life.
2. To marry the love of your life. Hazel grew up in a small town of Malad, Idaho and while attending business college in Salt Lake fell in love with Eddie. A handsome, charming lad from Scotland. They would look at each other in old age like a honeymoon couple would look at each other. She was his Honey. He was her Eddie. You could feel their love for each other when you were around them. I think of them dancing in my kitchen as they exchanged the purest smiles. And now I think of them dancing today with the sweetest reunion I can imagine. My brother told me when my grandpa was dying around 11 years ago, he walked in on my grandma and him kissing. They loved in this earth life until the very end, and their love will continue in the eternities. 
3. To adapt to life after death. I was heartbroken for my grandma when my grandpa passed away March 15, 2001. Since they were such a unified couple in love, I couldn’t imagine how life could ever be happy after losing the love of your life. She also outlived every one of her siblings, and that would be so difficult to see your family go one by one. But I realized death does not mean losing the love of your life because we have the plan of salvation. We have something to look forward to after this life as we are reunited with all out loved ones that have passed. Grandma McLeod adapted to life as she moved to the Coventry in Salt Lake. It was an independent/ apartment living place where she fit right in with older people in similar situations. She loved showing us around every time we visited and told us about all her friends and activities. She saw value and found joy in the details in life.
4. To embrace the sass and spice. My grandma was for sure a mixture of sugar and spice. I figured the sweetness of all that chocolate she ate diffused into her persona. She was the sweetest lady, but could get nail you with her wit or sassy comment accompanied by a smile. My dad told me a funny experience when he was visiting her at the Coventry. She was asking a young man working at the Coventry when the fireworks were for the 4^th of July. I’m not sure what things were said, but she felt like he was talking down to her or ignoring her question. Later as she recounted the story to my dad she said, “you know Bruce, that mad me so damn mad.” To hear that story made me laugh so hard because I never would hear her say that to me, but knew that is how she felt sometimes. Sweetness with that little kick of sass summed up my grandma.
5. To develop a love for fashion, lipstick, and hair care. I love how she would point out or cut out pictures of models in bright reds or fun outfits and say isn’t that cute, I would love to wear that. She always had to have her hair done, and you could rely on it to be perfectly coif. Every time she went out for an outing at JC Penny’s she’d get dolled up not complete without some lipstick.  
6. To live frugally. She lived a modest life and learned this lesson as she lived through the Great Depression. I wish I talked to her more about this, but she was a great example of how to live a comfortable and simple life, always remembering her family was of most importance.

Friends

I love these people. I love a lot of people here that are not included in these pics, but nonetheless I have had some of the most funny and enjoyable moments with these glorious friends.

http://jerusalemandi.blogspot.co.il/2012/11/sabbath-portraits.html

 Jenessa, Andrea, Brooke, Staisha, Jaquel, Rosemary, Alta

 And how we love Tom Tom

 B-Fuller in the house

lesson learned: You learn lessons of love and laughter best when you're in the company of friends. 

Camels and Grandmas

Zoe Suzuki

adventurer extraordinaire of a grandma. 

Let me just say I have the coolest grandparents ever. Both my grandmas grew up in small towns in Idaho/Wyoming. One married a charming lad from Scottland and the other a brilliant man from Japan. It makes sense why I am loving all these international men, it's in my blood.

With the passing of my grandma Zoe I've been thinking a lot about the power of a legacy. Because of her wonderful example to my mom, my mom in turn has been the best example to me of patience, love, and service. Because of my grandma my extended family has gathered near the beautiful Tetons every summer where the tradition of gaming, outdooring, loving, and adventuring has been instilled into all of us. Because she lived in Michigan, I loved Michigan. Because of her intelligence and independence she became a nurse and decided to go help in Japan after the war where she met my grandpa who was studying the effects of the atomic bomb. Because of their love they endured interracial marriage persecution where they had to go to a completely different state to be lawfully wed. Because of her adventuring spirit, she traveled the world and took this picture in Egypt on a camel, inspiring my world travel. Because of her dry humor and spunk she made us all laugh. Because of her humility and love she showed us how to live a life full of purpose and gratitude.  Because of her I am reminded who I want to be. A mother, a person who knows how to strike a balance between fun and learning, a world traveler, a wife, a supporter of education, a latter day saint, a comedian, a friend, a person of integrity, and a person who chooses love despite the challenges. So grandma, I'm sure you have internet access in heaven and I hope you know how beloved and appreciate you are in my life. This picture is just for you. 

Pretty cool that my grandma and I got to be in 2 out of the 7 wonders of the world on camels.

Giza, Egypt

Petra, Jordan

Alta, Wyoming

Lesson learned: a tomb stone on the coast of Turkey from the battle of Gallipoli I thought was simply beautiful and applicable to my grandma.

Passed Out

Remember that one time...

you passed out on cobblestone in the old city of Jerusalem.

YUP

Pre-passing out. So this is St. John's church and in order to go inside the courtyard you had to go through a little door. I hit my shin extremely hard and my head started feeling heavy and my vision went funny until I sat down. I didn't say anything until I said to my friends I don't feel good. Right at that moment I fainted and hit my head on cobblestone. I was out for around 30 seconds, but when I came to I didn't know what had happened and was confused why everyone was around me. Later I learned it was Vasovagal syncope-when you hit a nerve really hard that makes you faint.

 Post-Passing out. Good thing I have awesome friends who were there to help a sister out.

 You can't really see it, but I ended up getting a big goose egg for awhile

Besides that excitement for the day, we went to Mary's Tomb which was pretty cool. People come here to kiss the tomb of Mary, but I didn't get the memo about no lipstick. So when the priest was shouting at me in a foreign language and guarding the tomb with his life, I was so confused. Later I just realized he was just doing his job and protecting the tomb from some hot pink lips.

 Later we went to the place where the Last Supper took place.

lesson learned: Don't wear lipstick to Mary's tomb and if you are feeling like you are going to pass out, tell someone immediately to avoid having your face smash into some cobblestone.

Humanitarian Aid

 The Humanitarian committee gives the opportunity for us to help sanitary kits for people in our community. We got the assembly line down and 2 hours of doing the same motion was so much fun as we jammed out to some good tunes. We even got creative incorporating dance and packaging. 

 Brooke and I rocking our part in packing of towels.

Lesson learned: All you need is some good music and fun people to make service/work a party

Strug City

With the midterm for Ancient Near Eastern Studies (Anes we dearly refer to it as), and finals approaching for Israel, Palestine, Old Testament, and Hebrew we studious students are struggling with sleep deprivation and cramming 2,000 years of history into our brains. Some evidence to prove my point. And keep in mind, this is only one day I happened to have my camera during classes. There are way more priceless mental pictures I've acquired this semester.

 Even on 5 minute breaks, we utilize our time wisely.

Lesson learned: I many not being acing my tests or remembering everything, but the love for the people here in the center and in the community is increasing more than ever. Late nights watching movies or studying (and when I mean studying I mean being in a groups with books in our hand, but laughing off the wazoo and doing random, delirious things like throwing pitas and trust falling into eachother) are worth all the lost hours of sleep. Plus, that is what class is for right? just kidding..but no really

Jericho

On our way to Jericho, we stopped at places where:

1) the story of the Good Samaritan took place and 

2) Satan tempted the Savior during his 40 day fast

It has been one of my favorite field trips, because unlike so many holy places touched and altered by man, you could see the places as Jesus, the priest, levite, and samaritan saw them.

 Road to Jericho

Em and I made our mark

 Mountain where the Savior fasted

 I should have taken more pictures, but Jericho was a lovely place, not something I expected traveling into the West Bank

The oldest city known to man is Jericho, and this is the famous tower in Jericho dated back to 8,000 

BC

Lesson learned:

Q: Who is our neighbor? 

A: everyone

Each of us will go through our own road to Jericho, will we be the levite, priest, or the Samaritan when we see someone in need of help?