Shock and Sadness

 

Our Christmas morning began with the worst news imaginable.  Our son-in-law Anthony Young had passed away.  He was only 32 years old, and left behind his newlywed wife Keilah (Cathy's daughter) and their two-month old son Chase.  They visited us six months ago in June, and were married here in Hawaii.  We cannot even begin to describe the grief, sorrow and confusion we felt trying to process the news, especially since we didn't have any information about how it happened. Sister Mundell tried the best she could to comfort and console Keilah, but felt so helpless being so far away from her.  All she could do was cry, and then cry some more.  And pray.  Lots of prayers were said that Christmas day for Keilah and her little baby.

We made plans to have Christmas dinner with two single sisters who weren't going to be spending the holiday with their family, so in spite of it all, we did the best we could and tried to make it a special Christmas for our guests. Making the meal helped take our minds away from our grief for a while.  We also had a commitment to help with a zone conference for the missionaries on Kauai and Oahu the day after Christmas.  It was all Sister Mundell could do to pretend to be happy and put a smile on her face - when all she really felt like doing was to be by herself and cry all day.  Everyone kept asking her at the conference, "Why are you even here? Why aren't you with your daughter?"  Unfortunately, there wasn't much she could do until Keilah was ready for her mother to be there.  Cathy flew to California Friday night to help Keilah make funeral arrangements, then drive back to Las Vegas - and will be with her for about a week.

Anthony Young's mother had been visiting them in Las Vegas, and he was driving her back home to Taft, California.  He collapsed in a convenience store from a heart attack in the early morning hours of Christmas Day, was revived but passed away a while later on a  helicopter flight to Inglewood.  He'd had a very difficult life growing up, but he turned his life completely around after meeting and falling in love with Keilah.  He was a kind, gentle, compassionate young man who deeply loved and cared for his family.  We loved him, we were excited to have him be a part of our family, and his passing leaves a huge hole in our hearts.  We saw great wonderful positive changes in Keilah because of Anthony's influence in her life.  Now we worry about what will happen to her now that she's on her own with an infant son, dealing with a mountain of grief and sorrow.  Christmas will never be the same again.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Getting Together

Image
It's not easy being a full-time missionary, even for retired senior couples. We're away from our family and friends, we miss our homes and familiar surroundings, and adjusting to a new routine can be stressful, especially if we start having health issues. But the greatest blessings in life come to us by doing things that we may find difficult or unpleasant, and it's the growing and stretching required to accomplish our mission that molds us into the kind of disciple of Christ our Savior wants us to be. This week we had the difficult task of helping a sister in our ward with the funeral for her husband, who passed away at the early age of 47, leaving her with three young children and one on the way. Funerals are never fun, you feel awkward and don't know what to say to comfort those left behind. This particular funeral was especially hard for us because we had met the deceased only briefly one day, and we weren't close friends with his widowed wife. But we persevered...
Read more

Aloha Hawaii !!!

Image
     We arrived at our missionary assignment to the island of Oahu Saturday night, August 12th. We so excited, so blessed to be here, and willing to serve in any capacity, consecrating our time, energy and talents in a full time effort to bless the lives of God's children.       The MTC experience the past two weeks was unforgettable. What stood out the most to us during our time there was how close the ideal of Zion can be if we are unified in our purpose to serve Heavenly Father and His children with an eye single to the glory of God. "And the Lord called his people ZION, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness, and there were no poor among them." That is an apt description of the MTC.      Our departure to Honolulu was delayed for five hours, but we used our time wisely to engage the people near us in meaningful conversations, and really listen to them. Elder Mundell is making huge p...
Read more

Grateful, Thankful, Blessed

Image
At this special time of year, we wanted to express our gratitude for all of the blessings our Heavenly Father gives us.  Elder Mundell: I am grateful for my family; parents who loved and taught me, sisters who have been there to support me, Marquita who was a rock of faith with unbelievable talents and abilities, Cathy who brings love and joy into my life, children who were easy to raise and continue to bless my life by the choices they make; for the Savior Jesus Christ; for his perfect example of love and kindness to all, and his infinite atonement for me, and for all of us; for a testimony of the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ in these latter days; for the prophet Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. I am thankful for each day that I am allowed to live, thankful for the opportunity to be a missionary and share my testimony with the people I meet, either by words or through my actions, and to know deep inside that I am doing what I should be doing at this time of my lif...
Read more