MARILYN YOUNG ALARID, Helaman Halls, BYU, 2012
My cousin and I have never lived near each other, but for the first 15 years of our lives, spent a week or two during the summer staying at Grandpa and Grandma Young's or Unicle Lamar and Aunt Olive Nielsen's home in the Uintah Basin. We were inseparable. Marilyn lived in California or Nevada, was about 9 months older than I was, and quite honestly was the kindest, nicest person with just the right touch of a sense of humor. She was, quite rightfully, the sweetheart of the family. She was like my "Jiminy Cricket", the little voice in the back of my mind, prompting me to be kind and helpful. I adored her. A few years ago, as I was going though family papers, I found a "will" Marilyn had written at probably 12 or 13 leaving me all her earthly possessions.
Her mother, my Aunt Ruth was killed in an automobile accident which also shattered Marilyn's leg and maybe hip when she was about 15. A couple of years later, she married, and we went for years without seeing each other. She had a rough marriage, divorce, and a lot of grief with her two sons who had severe drug and alcohol. She worked hard to support herself, and was too busy to come with her family when they visited Utah. Kirk and I went to see her once or twice when we visited Northern California.
Fast forward until Tina's death, when she called me, and then later invited me to join her at BYU Women's Conference in Provo when she drove a group of women up. I, of course, accepted, and the almost 45 years melted away. We were a team -- taking up where we took off with a lot of life experience behind each of us.
Marilyn had remarried a nice man who died a few years ago. He was a staunch Catholic and wanted nothing to do with the LDS church. Marilyn's mother was not LDS, and she was not baptized until she was a teenager, if I remember correctly, and wasn't active for most of her life.
Faithful home teachers took note of her interest in family history a few years ago, and got her visiting the family history center in Sacramento. Things progressed from there, and she prepared to go to the temple around the time the Sacramento temple was dedicated in 2006.
We had to miss a year or two of Women's Conference due to Marilyn's work, but met up again this year. What a great experience to share the spirit sitting next to each other in the Marriott Center.
We both are crazy busy, (and a little just plain crazy) and mainly just exchange email forwards of humor, politics. and beauty, but it's like we know we are connected.
I'm so thankful for the blessing of a renewed friendship, that we are cousins, and most of all sisters in the gospel with a shared faith in Jesus Christ.
