21 December 2013
I love the picture that was selected for my Grandma's funeral program, this is how I most remember her. So put together, radiant and poised.
My Mom wrote the obituary for her Mother. Before submitting it to the paper, I helped her proofread it and rework it a bit. It was a sweet experience to sit by my Mom's side and reminisce.
December 31, 1926 ~ December 15, 2013
Our beloved Barbara Joyce Bird Robertson passed peacefully
from this life to the next on Sunday, December 15, 2013 and, oh, what a reunion
we can imagine is happening there with family and friends who went before!
Barbara was born to Freeman Crandall and Eva Marchbanks Bird
in West Mountain, Benjamin, Utah on New Year's Eve, 1926. When asked if she had
interrupted her family's party, she replied in her characteristic engaging wit,
"I was the party!" She was fifth in a family of six children who were
raised for the most part in Mapleton, Utah: Robert (LaRell) Bird, Virginia
(Chase) Allred, Genevieve (Stuart) Whiting, Norman Willis Bird, and MaryAnn
(William) Bradford.
On November 24, 1948 she married Leo Eugene Robertson in the
Salt Lake City Temple and soon thereafter left for Detroit, Michigan. From
there, Barbara and Gene moved with their budding family to Bremerton,
Washington before leaving for Concord and Hayward, California. After five years
in Cody, Wyoming, they moved to Chicago and finally to Provo, Utah. Wherever
they lived Barbara created a beautiful and comfortable home for her family as
her husband completed his medical training and began to practice as a plastic
surgeon. Their family grew to include Jim (Denna), Deborah (David) Sheets, Paul
(Teresa), Lisa Anne (Jim) Ashton, and Todd (Renae). It was shortly after coming
to Provo that Barbara experienced one of the great trials of her life with the
loss of their full-term baby daughter whom they named Abby Ann. This experience
further developed her natural compassion. Additionally, she mourned the sudden
loss of their youngest son, Todd, since his death in 2006.
As her children came, she was blessed to be able to be home
with them doing what she loved most- mothering. Because of her enthusiasm for
learning she enriched the lives of her children and later her grandchildren in
many ways. She loved each one and encouraged them to become their best. In
fact, Barbara showed the way by earning her degree in Family History (though
architecture would have been her first choice) as the oldest graduate at BYU in
1999 when she was 72. Throughout her life, Barbara continued to seek
understanding of countries and cultures as she and Gene traveled throughout the
world. It was her nature to seek for the lovely and true in life and everything
beautiful that the world had to offer.
Barbara's skills as an organized and effective leader were
honed as she served in a variety of callings in the LDS Church, including that
of Primary President, Ward Relief Society President several times and BYU Stake
Relief Society President. She later expressed that faithfully fulfilling these
callings prepared her to later serve as secretary to four successive Medical
Directors of the 350-bed King Fahad Hospital in Al Bahah, Saudi Arabia, a great
accomplishment indeed for a woman who had not worked outside the home for 32
years! She and her husband also served in the Cebu mission in the Philippines.
Barbara was known for her resourcefulness in caring for her
own needs and those of her family. She had many interests including bird
watching, gardening, sewing and knitting, but people were her true passion. She
blessed the lives of countless with her delightful sense of humor (something
that survived to the very last of her days), her wisdom and compassion, her
knowledge and testimony of eternal truths, and her wonderful homemaking
abilities. Though she might initially draw you in with her humor, you would
soon realize that she was a true safe haven, a sanctuary to all those with whom
she crossed paths leaving each encircled in her tender, thoughtful love. One
rarely left her presence without having been heard, lifted, inspired and
feeling better about oneself and about life. Of all of her gifts, her
unconditional love was the most cherished!
Barbara is survived by her husband, her four living
children, 19 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren; she is also survived by
her sister, Mary Anne Bradford (William). She was an incredible mother and
"Nana" to all of her grandchildren. She made each one feel that he or
she was her favorite! No one could have been blessed with a better mother or
grandmother!
We wish to thank caregivers from Aspen Senior Care whose service
and compassion enabled Barbara to live in her home the past few years since her
first stroke. Thanks also to Encompass Hospice and others who made it possible
for Barbara to be surrounded by family and dear friends during the last days
and hours of her life. Lastly, we wish to express special gratitude for our Dad
who cared tirelessly for Mother during the last few challenging years of her
life here in mortality.
Barbara's was a life well lived, worthy of both celebration
and emulation!
Mother, Nana, and cherished companion: Congratulations on
your "graduation" with honors!
Her funeral services will be held at 1:00pm on Saturday,
December 21st in the Red Chapel on 4000 North Timpview Drive (650 E.), Provo,
Utah.
Viewings will be held Friday night from 6:00 to 8:00pm at
the Sundberg-Olpin Mortuary at 495 South State Street Orem, Utah, and again
Saturday morning from 11:30am to 12:30pm before the services at the Red Chapel.
Interment will be in Springville Evergreen Cemetery.
Aunt Lisa did a beautiful job arranging the picture table, the flowers were perfect additions and so representative of Grandma's love for plants.
One of my favorite parts of the funeral was seeing so much of my extended family. It'd been TOO long. All of us cousins sang, "Abide with Me, Tis Eventide."
I was so inspired listening to my Mom and 3 of her siblings speak about their Mother. I sat there listening and crying...and thinking, "I hope that my kids can say even HALF these things at my funeral someday." Yep, Grandma, you left big shoes to fill :0)
This poem was selected by my Grandpa and read at the funeral:
She mothered five!
Night after night she watched a little bed,
Night after night she cooled a fevered head,
Day after day she guarded little feet,
Taught little minds the dangers of the street,
Taught little lips to utter simple prayers,
Whispered of strength that some day would be theirs,
And trained them all to use it as they should.
She gave her babies to the nation's good.
She mothered five!
She gave her beauty--from her cheeks let fade
Their rose-blush beauty--to her mother trade.
She saw the wrinkles furrowing her brow,
Yet smiling said: "My boy grows stronger now."
When pleasures called she turned away and said:
"I dare not leave my babies to be fed
By strangers' hands; besides they are too small;
I must be near to hear them when they call."
She mothered five!
Night after night they sat about her knee
And heard her tell of what some day would be.
From her they learned that in the world outside
Are cruelty and vice and selfishness and pride;
From her they learned the wrongs they ought to shun,
What things to love, what work must still be done.
She led them through the labyrinth of youth
And brought five men and women up to truth.
She mothered five!
Her name may be unknown save to the few;
Of her the outside world but little knew;
But somewhere five are treading virtue's ways,
Serving the world and brightening its days;
Somewhere are five, who, tempted, stand upright,
Who cling to honor, keep her memory bright;
Somewhere this mother toils and is alive
No more as one, but in the breasts of five.
As I peered down at the snow-covered grave I felt like the present and past were mingling for a moment. To think that someday I will be reunited with these ancestors and relatives.
My Great Grandpa & Grandma Robertson's grave
Some of my cousins, the Ashton brothers.
All of my fam (minus the kiddos), thanks to cousin Thomas for playing paparazzi for us ;0)
(The above grave is for my cousin Nicole Robertson who was stillborn. I can't even imagine how heart-wrenching that must have been for my Uncle Todd & Aunt Renae :0( She would have been Matt's & Thomas' age. The bottom left corner picture is of our Alexander Graden and my cousin Alexander Robertson, named after two of our Robertson relatives.)
My Mom & her sister Lisa (or Lis, as I always heard growing up). They did a beautiful job picking out the flowers for Grandma's casket. It was a COLD but beautiful, snowy day. The flowers were such a stunning contrast against the white snow.
The grave of Abby Ann, my Grandparents' last child, who was stillborn. I have no doubt that my Grandma was anxious to be reunited with her little girl! Not to mention my Uncle Todd, her brother Freeman, her Parents...
Me & my cousin Alasha at the luncheon following the grave side service. I hadn't seen her in AGES! I don't even remember when the last time was. She grew up in Olympia, Washington and I always loved when she and her family came into town. I have fond memories of doing an extended family trip to Grand Targhee in Alta, Wyoming. She now lives in Alaska with her husband and little boy. It was wonderful seeing her again.
Thank you again, Alan & Liz, for taking care of Brie & Alex ALL DAY LONG so we could take part in the funeral without two cute distractions ;0)
