Ora Carpenter Omerza journal, May 10-June 1981

10 May 1981

Today is Mother’s day. Our Bishop and his wife talked in Sacrament Meeting about Mothers. In the afternoon Jay and family and Madge and family came and brought gifts and good wishes. It’s great to be a Mother. It’s great to have the children and grandchildren here.

11 May 1981

Today Florence called and wanted me to go to Thatcher with them tomorrow. It seemed like a good idea so I said I’d be at their house at 7 a.m. the next day. She was going to ask Bertha to come back with us as Bertha was planning on coming this month anyway.

12 May 1981

Up bright and early for the trip to Thatcher. Joe took their motor home. Ivan and Hazel went also. We had such a good time. Florence had prepared breakfast and also lunch. All I did was go and enjoy. We stopped on the way and ate breakfast. We had a good visit with Bertha and she decided to come back with us. She came and stayed with me. I enjoyed that.

(no date)
I get negligent with my journal at times so I’m doing a little catching up. Bertha and I had such a good visit together. Florence and Joe were so nice to give us all a good day together. On Saturday 16 May, Reed and Ruth were in Tucson to see David graduate from U of A. A great day in their lives and we are so proud of David. We had planned a big family get together but David had to leave early for his next job and so with a few other interferences we decided to just get the brothers and sisters and mates together. Reed only had two nights there. Thursday 21 May was the night. They all came to my house. We were all together but Floyd and Marie. We missed them and hope we can all get together again soon. We talked and Afton showed some pictures and we just had a good time generally. Reed left the next day to go back to New Mexico.

Monday 25 May was the Memorial Day holiday for the working people. A big day had been planned to all go to Thatcher and ride the tractor trailer to the river (a tradition from Grandpa Carpenter). Most of Florence’s, Bertha’s, and my families were there. We had about 35 children under 14. It was a lot of fun. There was just enough water in the river for the children to wade and for the tiny ones to have fun. No swift currents to worry about.

Madge and John invited me to go with them. John wanted to go in his plane. He had been promising me a ride for a long time so this seemed the time. It was a delightful trip. Smooth glass. I don’t care for air turbulence. It was interesting to see the country you have traveled so often by car from the air. It’s sorta seeing the forest instead of the trees. I enjoyed it very much. It took us exactly 30 minutes by air about 3 hours by car.

Bertha went home then and stayed. It was lonesome coming home without her. But we had two good weeks together.

Sister Gladys Beals and I have been attending the missionary seminar at the Stake. They are very inspirational. I have enjoyed them so much. As far as missionary work we haven’t been doing too well. We have visited a few families who have moved into the ward. Mostly inactive members and not interested. A lot of work to be done.

[the above entry seems a little disjointed, so its possible I messed it up when originally transcribing it from Grandma's copy]