Living out of suitcases! Life in limbo! Lots of fun and surprises!

So fun to have Nanci and Darryl Thomander come to visit from Palo Alto, just as my new house finally became mine!

I came back to my Airbnb one evening to find that the Murillos from Quito, Ecuador, whom I'd worked with in the Guayaquil Temple, would be staying there too! 

I stayed with 3 grandchildren while their parents accompanied grand-daughter Hannah to regional states gymnastics competition in Arizona. She placed first on the bars! Nick learned to tie a bow tie for his first prom with his cute date.

Marc does a 60 second ice cream tasting video. Son Simon films.

Taking a walk with Marty, Evie and Nick around Daybreak. 

I can officially drive all over Utah with my first Utah plates,but still need to get a Utah driver's license. So many details to work out.

Visit from Palo Alto friends Al and Susan Dorsky. Lunch at Sundance in Provo Canyon. Ski season has ended there, but continues elsewhere. Ski passes have been cheap and most of my family skies.

Instead, the blossoms are amazing!

Plum and pear blossoms in my new neighborhood and around Utah 

New to me are the feed and agriculture stores. My grand-daughter Lucie has many chickens which she lovingly cares for and gathers the eggs.

My daughter Julie and her three girls, daughter-in-law Fernanda and daughter and I enjoyed the cherry blossoms at the Utah state capitol. The girls climbed every other tree!

Fernanda and Julie at the Mormon Battalion monument at the capitol.

At lunch I was thrilled to run into friend Becca Sweat and daughter and grandkids, moved from Palo Alto to Idaho. Friends everywhere!

After lunch we climbed Ensign Peak north of the capitol and temple. Brigham Young and others, following a vision given him by the deceased Joseph Smith, hiked to the summit on July 26, 1847, just two days after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, to raise the ensign of liberty and to lay out the new city.

It's been fun to watch my grand kids play and my kids coach soccer, and to hike together. Cool weather and still bare trees did not stop our enjoying a hike to Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon.

or a friend's birthday celebration outdoors at the Taylors' where I currently have happily parked myself, close to my new house, which now has a new roof! The rest is still in progress.

The uncertainty of world events continues to challenge all of us and encourages lots of reflection on so many issues. I appreciated the following piece and all the role models I have had over the years.

Just as we prepare for earthquakes or power shut-offs, we all should probably prepare for how we will respond the next time we see harassment. How we respond will depend upon the circumstances, but thinking about how to respond before we find ourselves thrust into that situation might be helpful.

 In the case of the murder of George Floyd, all the bystanders could do was document it with their phone cameras. As we have seen, the evidence can be important later.

Sometimes we may be able to get help to stop the harassment or the violence by calling 911 or by asking other bystanders for help. Bullies will often leave when confronted by a group.If the harassment has not become violent, we may be able to intervene by pretending to know the victim and saying something like, “Hey, old friend, long time no see. Do you want to get out of here and go get a cup of coffee?” If the victim takes the hint and leaves the scene with you, you might just find you have a new friend.

 Sometimes we may only feel comfortable going up to the victim afterwards and saying how awful we feel that this happened to them. Whatever we feel we are able to do, it’s most important to let the victim know s/he is not alone and that we don’t condone what has happened.

 Let’s hope that by embracing those who are a little different from us, we can show those around us the value of diversity.

 

Fondly,

Annette Isaacson
                   CCIS President                  
president@ccisstanfordu.org

Under President Jimmy Carter, from 1977 to 1981, Walter Mondale was the first vice president to serve as a genuine partner of a president, with full access to intelligence briefings, a weekly lunch with Mr. Carter, his own office near the president’s and his own staff integrated with Mr. Carter’s.

Throughout his career, Mr. Mondale advocated an assertive and interventionist role for the federal government, especially on behalf of the poor, minority groups and women.

Walter F. Mondale, the former vice president and champion of liberal politics, activist government and civil rights who ran as the Democratic candidate for president in 1984, losing to President Ronald Reagan in a landslide, died on Monday at his home in Minneapolis. He was 93.

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Let us not forget the many courageous men and women who have given, and those who continue their lives and service to country and others. This at the Vietnam Memorial at the Utah Capitol.

The Conference Center across from Temple Square will open again soon, we hope!

Cordelia and I take a walk. Peter coaching Cordelia's soccer team

Putting Life into perspective

As I have finally this week become the owner of my Provo, Utah home, I realize all the frustrating tasks required are small in comparison to the huge challenges in our troubled world today. I'm grateful to be closer to family and the opportunity to make new friends and to have new adventures. Thanks to all who have supported me as I've moved here. 

 

I've grown to love the mountains. Spring comes to Utah a couple months later than in California, but is even more welcome!

I have stayed in 2 Airbnbs (the second one in the basement of the house with the red car )and with son Peter and family (with blossoming plum trees in front) in between.  

Easter dinner with Rebecca de S., Sterling and Kif (sister of Sterling Augustine, friend in Palo Alto), Peter, Miriam.

After watching April 4 General Conference session, Easter with son Marc and most of family in front of Oquirrh Mountain Temple, a block from their new home in Daybreak. Plans were announced for 20 new temples to be built around the world...so exciting! President Nelson and other leaders spoke eloquently about the need for more faith to see us through hard times, more kindness and compassion.

Evie enjoyed her mom's crepes; Marc, Nick and Marty (dog)

Orem (and Utah County) are much more rural than I'm used to, but it's fun to walk and explore. Beautiful large homes are interspersed with tiny old homes, gorgeous trees in bloom, and signs of happy family celebrations...

 

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 It breaks my heart to read about so many Asians being persecuted or dismissed. These brave men, women and children are an important part of American life and deserve our respect, friendship and inclusion. 

Follow the link for personal stories and photos of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, Filipino, and other Asians...all are Americans!

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/04/08/arts/asian-american-photos-love.html?campaign_id=49&emc=edit_ca_20210409&instance_id=29043&nl=california-today&regi_id=11

"WHEN YOUR FACE MAKES YOU VULNERABLE, one solution is to disappear: Keep your face hidden; don’t go far from home; don’t leave the house at all. Some advocate becoming hyper-American. Change your name; change your smile; wave the flag — camouflage yourself with what we’re told Americanness should resemble, which is to say: not us. Others would like us to disappear literally. I was 11, standing at a bus stop, when a man shouted in my face: Go back to China or Vietnam or wherever you came from. "

                                        

Another wrote:

“This is my 97-year-old grandmother, Kim Gap Soon. I remember her telling me the story of when she crossed a large river in the middle of the night to flee south during the Korean War while pregnant with my dad and carrying her other children, praying they wouldn’t cry so they wouldn’t get shot at. She’s now living at a nursing home outside of Seoul and is suffering from dementia. When I see the senseless attacks on elders in the U.S., it breaks my heart to think that anyone would want to hurt these grandmas and grandpas who suffered so much."

 

A World War II photo as Japanese were sent to internment camps

As we have mourned the deaths of so many Covid victims, there are also those of men and women who have made an international impact

Prince Philip, Husband of Queen Elizabeth II, Is Dead at 99

The Duke of Edinburgh, who married the future queen in 1947, brought the monarchy into the 20th century, but his occasional tactless comments hurt his image.

2017: Prince William and Kate, Meghan and Prince Harry with their grandfather 

When this tall, handsome prince married the young crown princess, Elizabeth, on Nov. 20, 1947 — he at 26, she at 21 — a battered Britain was still recovering from World War II, the sun had all but set on its empire, and the abdication of Edward VIII over his love for Wallis Simpson, a divorced American, was still reverberating a decade later.

Philip was born on the Greek island of Corfu on June 10, 1921, the fifth child and only son of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, who was the brother of King Constantine of Greece. His mother was the former Princess Alice, the oldest daughter of the former Prince Louis of Battenberg, the first Marquess of Milford Haven, who changed the family name to Mountbatten during World War I. Through his mother, Philip was a great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria, just as Elizabeth is Victoria’s great-great-granddaughter. .

The princes paid tribute on Monday to the Duke of Edinburgh’s devotion to his wife, Queen Elizabeth II, but also nodded to their private memories of a grandfather they described warmly as sharp-witted, mischievous and affectionate to their children.

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In the opening scene of the classic film 

“City Lights” (1931),      Charlie Chaplin’s character, the Little Tramp, dangles comically from a statue while its sculptor watches in horror, raising   his hand to his mouth in surprise and wiping his brow in distress.

The actor portraying the sculptor, Granville Redmond, appeared in seven Chaplin films, recognizable by his wild mane of hair. Redmond was deaf, and his performances were early examples of deaf representation in Hollywood. Some believe Redmond even taught Chaplin, famous as a pantomime, how to use sign language.

But Redmond was first and foremost an artist, one who inspired Chaplin with paintings of California’s natural beauty: quiet, brown tonal scenes; lonely rock monuments jutting off an island peninsula; tree-dotted meadows lit by a warm sun; blue nocturnal marshes under the dramatic glow of the moon. His paintings are considered today among the best examples of California Impressionism. I miss my California poppies almost as much as I miss my friends there! But last evening I enjoyed a watercolor class painting tulips and sunflowers, taught by artist Cindy Briggs who has painted scenes in some of my favorite places in France, Italy and Spain.

But Redmond was first and foremost an artist, one who inspired   Chaplin with paintings of California’s natural beauty: quiet, brown tonal scenes; lonely rock monuments jutting off an island peninsula; tree-dotted meadows lit by a warm sun; blue nocturnal marshes under the dramatic glow of the moon. His paintings are considered today among the best examples of California Impressionism.