Ora Carpenter Omerza journal, Sept 18-Oct 8, 1982

Ora sold her home and is visiting her sister in Thatcher at the time of this writing

18 Sept 1982

This was a great day. Jay and his family came. I was so excited about them coming but the night before I began feeling bad. My stomach was upset and I felt bad all over. I went to bed early hoping I would feel better the next day. I awoke early the next morning and I can’t remember feeling worse in all my life than I did then. I got out of bed and went to the bathroom but before I could make it back to the bed I found myself stretched out on the floor. I wondered how I was ever going to make it through the day with Jay’s family coming and all. I got back in bed and slept a little and when I awoke I felt much better. As the day went on I kept feeling better, by the time Jay got here I was able to be about. We had planned to cook out in the back yard for the evening. We invited Janet and Jeff and Linda and Dan and their families. However Linda and Dan had gone to the Temple that day and didn’t get back until the party was almost over. However their children were here and they seemed to enjoy Jay’s children so it was a happy time for all. We had such a good visit and I was feeling much better. I was so happy to see Jay and Marlene and the children. We talked into the night but finally got everyone bedded down.

19 Sept 1982

Today is Sunday. Since Bertha’s ward starts meeting in her ward at 10:20

it appears I’ve missed something from the transcript here

and then go to the Relief Society and is in Linda’s ward. They followed each other. The children were all happy to go with Linda’s children to their Primary and SS classes. I felt much much better Sunday morning and was planning on going to church. Bertha got up early and was getting things ready for breakfast when she stooped over and got a catch in her back and couldn’t straighten up. We finally got her to the bed and there she stayed the rest of the day. She said she would be ok and for the rest of us to go on to church. I met a lot of people in that ward that I knew and there were even some there who knew Marlene and Jay so we had an interesting time. Dan and Linda came down in the afternoon so Jay and Marlene got acquainted with Dan. Jay and family left about 6:30 to go back to Mesa. It was so good to have them here.

20 Sept 1982

Bertha still flat on her back. Jean brought her some relaxing pills but they didn’t seem to have much effect. I spent most of the day taking care of her and cleaning up after the company.

22 Sept 1982

Bertha is feeling better she is able to get around a little. She rode over with me to get some apples. We peeled apples in the afternoon and I bottled about 9 qts.

25 Sept 1982

Bertha is gaining each day. I gave her a permanent today. In the afternoon we went to visit Aunt Gladys. We had a very enjoyable time. She seemed so glad to see us. In the evening we went to the church to hear the Women’s Conference on tape. I had heard it in March but it was good to hear it again.

26 Sept 1982

Sunday. Because of General Conference being next Sunday we had Fast Sunday today. It was a good meeting. In the afternoon we visited with Uncle Ray and Aunt Rilla. Bertha took her pictures she took at the family reunion in June and they had some of the reunion we hadn’t seen. It was a pleasant afternoon.

1 Oct 1982

The highlight of this day was Sarah Dimick called. They were in Safford. Bertha and I went up to see them. Spent a very pleasant afternoon. I hadn’t seen Sarah for some time. Rollen was looking and feeling quite well after his heart surgery a year and a half ago.

2 Oct 1982

Today we went to Snowflake. Bertha had been invited to Larry’s daughter Amy’s baptism. Carol was having a family reunion and had invited all her family to the baptism. We had a pleasant trip up there. Since it was General Conference we had planned to listen to the Saturday morning session on the radio as we drove but we couldn’t make connections so we missed it. We stayed at the Ceader motel while we were there. We went to the baptism at 12 noon and then to the park for a picnic lunch. After lunch all the men and boys and girls played football, and women visited and Bertha and I went back to the motel and took a nap. In the evening all the grown ups went to the Longhorn Café for dinner. Their specialty of course was steak and it was delicious. I enjoyed the day, meeting Carol’s family.

3 Oct 1982

Today is General Conference. We were told we could get in live on T.V. in our motel but that was wrong. We watched the Saturday morning session on T.V. Sunday morning and then went to the Stake Center for the afternoon session. As always it was very inspiring. In the evening we visited with Larry and Carol and children and also Jean, Carol’s mother. Then went back to the Motel.

This must be the end of the bound journal, as my transcript includes this next
ON NOTEBOOK PAPER: “continued from No. 3”

4 Oct 1982

This morning we stopped by Larry’s and visited with Carol’s mother. Larry, Carol and children were all in school, then we left for Thatcher.

While I was in Snowflake, Ted called me to make sure I would be back in Mesa for his birthday on the 16th.

5 Oct 1982

Today we went to the bank and did some shopping. In the afternoon I helped Bertha cook a birthday dinner for Dan. Linda, Dan and the children came to dinner and to celebrate Dan’s birthday. We had an enjoyable evening.

6 Oct 1982

This evening we went to Relief Society home making meeting. A Spanish lady showed us how to make tortillas. It was very interesting. She was an expert and it looked so easy the way she patted them out but for the women trying to follow her direction it wasn’t so easy. We then went into the cultural hall and saw a demonstration on how to have a Halloween party, costumes, food, games, etc. We were then served a chile burro. It was good but very hot with chile.

7 Oct 1982

We went to visit one of Bertha’s friends, Marg Howard. She had broken her leg and had been staying with her son in Ducan. She had just returned to her home in Thatcher. We picked up Bertha’s friend Elma Gr? and visited with Mary.

We had planned to visit Albert and Maybelle that afternoon but they were busy.

In the evening we went to dinner with Blanch at the Casa. It was good food and pleasant conversation. After dinner Blanch visited with us for awhile. Dan had been by in the afternoon and said he was expecting some money from his folks and wanted to start building their house with would be on the lot just west of Bertha.

8 Oct 1982

Before we were hardly out of bed this morning Dan was here with a man with a rig to dig the basement of the house. It was quite an exciting day. In three hours he had completely changed the landscape. The spruce trees along the road were gone and the basement dug. About nine o’clock Linda came with a check from Dan’s folks for $10,000. They were so excited. It was part of Dan’s inheritance from his father. They worked until dark and Bertha asked them to stay to dinner.

Bertha’s visiting teaching partner called early that morning and said they needed to go visiting teaching at 8 o’clock. She only had a half hour notice and with the excitement of digging the basement we hadn’t even had breakfast. After she got home we went to buy yarn for afghans. Elma Gr? offered to make us both an afghan.

In the afternoon Albert and Maybelle called and wanted to come visit so we spent an enjoyable two hours with them. It was quite a day.