Goodbye Grandma Richards

On July 23, 2014 Nathan's last remaining grandparent, his Grandma Richards passed away while staying at Nathan's parents home.  We were blessed to be able to visit with her and spend many hours talking with her during the preceding months while she lived at his parents home.

Merle Wilkins Richards, 86, of Hunter, Utah passed away on July 23, 2014 at the home of her daughter, Carol Perry, in Lake Point, Utah At the time of her passing and for several days previous, she was surrounded by her family and had enjoyed wonderful experiences visiting with them and feeling their love for her.

Merle was born December 12, 1927 to Rodney and Elsie Fern Wilkins in Hunter, Utah. She married Warren B. Richards on December 22, 1950 in the St. George, Utah Temple. They were blessed with eight children: Brent Richards, David (Stephanie)Richards, Marianne (Richard) Reading, Janice (Raymond) Poole, Carol (David) Perry, Karen (Steven) Morrey, John (Maria Elena) Richards, William Bradford (Suzette) Richards. She is blessed with 30 grandchildren and 38 great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, Warren, in 2002.

Merle was fun-loving and adventurous which lead to many fun moves around the country-Wyoming, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and back to Utah. She was a nurse and loved working with the new-born babies in the local hospital for 10 years in Texas. She was the number one “card shark” with her grandchildren and could always be counted on for help, a smile, and a hug. She loved to read and enjoyed greatly listening to music. She was an active participant in life and she tried to be self-reliant in all she did. She was loved by all who knew her and will be greatly missed.

Nathan's mother Carol (front row, second from the left)

with her seven siblings.

At the graveside one of the daughters-in-law who works

for an animal rescue center brought a hawk to release 

back into the wild.  Nathan's mother was able to set

it free.

The hawk sat in the tree for a few minutes and then took off

One blessing that resulted because of Grandma's passing is that Nathan got to spend several days spending time with his Mother. Even though we live only 15 miles away from each other both Nathan and his mother work for the same company but on completely different schedules.  When one is working the other has their days off.  While one is on night-shift the other is scheduled day-shift.  Often if we want to have a family get-together with everyone present Carol ends up taking a day off so that they can both be their.  

When Nathan went in to work on July 24th, the morning after his grandmother passed away and informed them that he would need Monday off to attend the funeral they told him to go home for the rest of the week.  Because of this he was able to spend many hours visiting with his mom and the rest of the family.