Last night I pulled up cnn.com expecting to see the latest on Barack and Hillary and I saw a picture of my dear friend, Gordon B. Hinckley heading up the main story. The caption beneath the picture read he had died. My eyes stung with quick tears. I never met President Hinckley in person but feel a connection with him. All my life he has been around dressed in a suit and giving beautiful talks on kindness, acceptance, and forgiveness. More than that, he was ordained the Prophet when I was an 18 year old freshman at Snow College. President Hinckley travelled with me through the rockiness of young adulthood. Like a distant friend, he was always there to offer wise counsel and stand as an example. I think I'll take with me always his example. I savored the view of his loving marriage with his wife Marjorie and always hoped I could have the same type of marriage (though it is already not the same because Jeff and I have had a couple of arguments and apparently they never had any). I admire how genuinely positive and happy he seemed though with such a long life, he must have seen the blacker side of things. I love how grateful he was for everything and how he made me laugh. So I miss him even though we never met or were never real friends. I hope he won't mind if I remember him as a friend. When I die, I hope that I can be where he is and shake his hand and tell him how grateful I am for his sweet life of service and for his example. Thanks for showing me that you can still be funny, happy, positive, and good and be 97 years old.
Monday, January 28, 2008
My Friend
Last night I pulled up cnn.com expecting to see the latest on Barack and Hillary and I saw a picture of my dear friend, Gordon B. Hinckley heading up the main story. The caption beneath the picture read he had died. My eyes stung with quick tears. I never met President Hinckley in person but feel a connection with him. All my life he has been around dressed in a suit and giving beautiful talks on kindness, acceptance, and forgiveness. More than that, he was ordained the Prophet when I was an 18 year old freshman at Snow College. President Hinckley travelled with me through the rockiness of young adulthood. Like a distant friend, he was always there to offer wise counsel and stand as an example. I think I'll take with me always his example. I savored the view of his loving marriage with his wife Marjorie and always hoped I could have the same type of marriage (though it is already not the same because Jeff and I have had a couple of arguments and apparently they never had any). I admire how genuinely positive and happy he seemed though with such a long life, he must have seen the blacker side of things. I love how grateful he was for everything and how he made me laugh. So I miss him even though we never met or were never real friends. I hope he won't mind if I remember him as a friend. When I die, I hope that I can be where he is and shake his hand and tell him how grateful I am for his sweet life of service and for his example. Thanks for showing me that you can still be funny, happy, positive, and good and be 97 years old.
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4 comments:
Hmmm. . . I was expecting to see him on the news and never did. I heard from family and friends. I know we were all expecting it soon, but it was still sad to hear.
I too feel like I've lost a great friend. For half my life he has been prophet...I hadn't realized how long it has been! What a wonderful man he was!
Yes, as much as we knew it was coming, it was still so sad to hear. I could live to be 600 years old and not accomplish as much as he did in 97. I loved his optimism!
He was an amazing man who inspired us all! I always looked forward to hearing him speak at conference. I was very sad to hear that he had passed, but felt so much joy when I thought of the reunion he must have experienced when he passed through to the other side.
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