The demographic tsunami of baby-boomers is breaking on our shores and will soon swamp the elder care industry. The flotsam left in the wake of this phenomenon is an exponential increase in cases of dementia and Alzheimer’s.     While there is no cure as yet, Reminiscence Therapy (RT) can...

This remarkable story about a defining moment in my personal history was written by Christine Bonham. daughter of my very good friend and visionary, Dave Fankhauser.    Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.                ...

I should warn you from the start that this story is more about thoughts and feelings about the sudden changes I face in 2015.  The first week in January was like most any other week in the middle of a Northwest winter.  It was dreary, cold, and rainy.  I had been...

When Family History Missionaries were called and sent out to the world, they were sent to serve in local Family History Centers.  The missionaries were trained by a selected staff at the Brigham Young University (BYU) Family History Center.  It was a huge task and it impacted the library operation considerably....

In the fall of 1956 a young woman with four small children moved to Oskaloosa, Iowa, where my family lived. I don’t remember her name and wouldn’t divulge it if I did, so I’ll call her Carol. She came from another State, where she and her children had been battered by...

On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   An Indelicate Subject   Sometimes it takes the stimulus of an ignorant post or meme on the Internet to finally push the Footloose Forester over the edge.  As repugnant and as repulsive as the subject matter...

My father, James K (Jim) Long, never met a stranger. To him strangers were just friends he hadn't met. I always admired his ability to strike up a conversation with a person he had just met and talk as if he had always known him or her. The only thing he...

Diane and I met the latter part of June 1972, although we had noticed each other while attending a Brigham Young University summer ward, when I visited her in the capacity of her Home Teacher.  We began dating on July 4, 1972.  We were engaged to be married on August 24,...

Whether you are a professional caregiver or have finally gotten around to asking an aging relative to share their life stories, be prepared for the unexpected. As enthused as you might be to hear some amazing life experiences, the elder may not be so much.   Young people today are living...

I've always had a complicated relationship with horses.  I love them but that doesn't mean they necessarily liked me back.  I think they can tell I don't really know what I'm doing.  One time I was on a trail ride.  Mom was paying for horseback riding lessons.  We only went a...

I was in grade school when our Dad took us to the park.  There was a creek that travelled through most of the park, under a bridge and then under the street.  Dad took us down to the water's edge and let us play in it.  We saw a crawfish in...

When I was about five or six my Dad dug a trench to put sprinklers in.  He dug the trench in one weekend and it had to wait for the next weekend to put the PVC pipe in.  That week Heather, my older sister and our babysitter, filled up the trench...

Acer rubrum To Zyzyphus jujuba Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   The Seagulls And The Clams   Our friend Thanh Mahoney related an amusing story to us about one of those “Truth is Stranger Than Fiction” events that might have seemed bizarre when it...

The Army  The Choice After graduation from El Molino High School in Forestville, California, I joined the United States Army. It was in the middle of the Vietnam War and all young men were subject to the draft. I thought that I would avoid the possibility of being drafted and forced...

A senior, small in stature with a big heart, is LaRae Ficklin.  She was born at home in February, 1930 in Leland, Utah (now part of Spanish Fork) to LeRoy and Twila Mae Allen Isaac.  She loved growing up in Leland.  She was 15 yeras old during WWII and she remembers...

Although it is important to sort out and document legacy stories from your past, not all of your defining moments and milestone events happened in your distant past. In fact, you are still making history every single day, mostly being recorded in real time on smart phones, tablets and in social...

Acer rubrum To Zyzyphus jujuba Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   It Pays To Read Labels   Advertisers have been doing it for decades.  Putting nutritional information on milk cartons and cereal boxes, assembly instructions on the back of pre-fabricated office furniture pieces, and...

Glen Scholl and Judith Anne Jones were married in the St. George Temple in 1965. They met while attending the College of Southern Utah.  After graduating from college, Judy began teaching school in Norwalk, while Glen attended college at California State, Fullerton.  He transferred to the University of Utah and graduated...

  Alan and Ellen Loveland live in Orem. They have been married 14 years. Alan is a retired building contractor, having had businesses in Alaska, Idaho and Utah. Ellen retired From UVU as a Professor in the School of Business teaching legal studies. She is also a lawyer on inactive status....

Acer rubrum To Zyzyphus jujuba Essays, Stories, Adventures, Dreams  Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   A Shared Legacy   It is my privilege to contribute a legacy story about a man long dead, for the benefit of a nephew who was born long after his uncle died; and...