Transcript for Give my mom a hug for me • followHIM Favorites • Mar 25- Mar 31 • Come Follow Me

Hello everyone, welcome to Follow Him Favorites, John and I are taking on a single story from each week's lesson. John, this is a great week, it's Easter, and follow him. I have a story for you, and I hope it's both fun and touching. You ready? Yeah, I'm excited. I'll try to make this short. I did a longer version of this on a talk on CD. I did a long time ago and also a wide religion episode that just came out recently. But I want to tell it here again because I really love it. It's about my in-laws, Sarah's parents, Rod and Marlene Savage. They met when they were an elementary school in Richfield, Utah at the ideal dairy. They, they knew each other growing up. One day, Rod was talking to his school counselor in high school and the school counselor said, who are you taking a prom and Rod said, Oh, I don't do those kind of things. I don't go to prom. I'm going to go hunting and the And the counselor said, well, every girl deserves to go to prom and raw to never thought about that before, strangely. So he thought, well, maybe I'll ask him one. I'll ask Marlene, right? They've been friends since they were kids. They went on this first date with each other and just had a wonderful time. Rod is very outgoing and fun and playful. And Marlene is a planner, an organized, get good grades. So they complemented each other really well and had a great night. And they ended up never dating anyone else again. They ended up getting married and moving down the St. George, which is where I grew up. This story really begins when they have their first baby, Justin. Baby Justin, he's two days old. They bring him home from the hospital. For fun, Rod decided to take Justin on a tour of the house. So here's this baby, he's two days old. and he starts going item to item in the house like this is the refrigerator let's open it this is the freezer right in this baby's just looking He showed him every piece of silverware. And this tour of a little tiny 500 square foot apartment takes 90 minutes as he goes from painting to picture to television, just having a fun time with this baby. Well, just like most people's houses, I bet you have some of these John wear kind of silly things become traditions. Right. A thing you just did. You didn't even think, oh, let's start a tradition. You just did it. And so when baby Amy comes, there's little Justin two or three years old. Rod takes baby Amy on the tour with both Justin and Marlene following along. Right on this tour of the house. Here's the couch. Here's the window. just the silly tradition, and then their third child, their fourth child, their fifth child, which is the best one I think, because I married her. And then the sixth child, every time the whole family went on this tour, and then the tour was off for a little while because they didn't have any more children, but then Justin had a baby, baby Chad, and the tour begins again for grandchildren. John, I had to go on this tour by that time I had joined the family. And they said, Chad's here. Maybe Chad is here and this kids a couple weeks old. We're going on the tour. That's my wife. What are we doing? She said this is what we do. So go with it. So I followed them around, and here he's showing him the piano, and he ended up using this as a teaching tool. He'd bring the baby right up to you and say, this is your Uncle Hank. He's gonna take good care of you. He's gonna watch over you, and you're like, hey kid, and I still talked to that kid, John. It was part of the tour. I have to watch out for you, I promise. All the grandkids have been on the tour. All my kids have been on the tour. It was a fun tradition that turned into basically a family joy. Well, In 2013, unfortunately, my mother-in-law, Marlene, was diagnosed with liver cancer. Less than a year later, she was placed on hospice and is at home and she's going to pass away. The hospice nurses told Rod that it looked like she was going to pass very soon. They wanted to move her from her wheelchair to her bed one last time. Rod was about to do it when he had us, I think, a spark of inspiration, John. He turned to his children who were all there, John, all six of them are there, and some grandchildren were there, and said, let's take mom on a tour. My wife said it was one of the most beautiful moments of her life. My dad took her to the family room and melt down in front of her and said, 47 years of family home evening. How did you put up with us? And then took her to the television room and said, how many shows have we watched together? How many John Wayne movies did you have to put up with? And then he took her to the kitchen and knelt down in front of her and said, How many meals have you cooked for this family? And he said something like, you're the greatest cook that has ever lived. And my wife said, even my mother who is kind of in and out, smurked at that. Like are you kidding me? Right. I was not the greatest cook who ever lived. The children kind of drifted away as this husband took his bride of 47 years through the rest of the house and he wept. He looked at the pictures of kids and grandkids and then he took her picture up and later gently in her bed and sat by her side right there on the bed and held her hand for the next few hours as she passed away. He didn't have to testify of the resurrection of life after death and the resurrection. He just believed in it and lived as if he believed. Right, he lived because this is what he believes. This is what he truly knows. I asked him about it and he said, I didn't want to send her into the spirit world, sad. I wanted her to cross over wanted to celebrate this part of her existence, her mortality, he even whispered to her, John, read to the very end. He said, give my mom a big hug for me. Maybe John with this story, one, how fun family traditions can be. Two, you never know what they might turn into. These beautiful teaching moments. And three, we might not ever have to. I mean, there's something wrong with testifying of what you believe, but For my wife, she knew what her parents believed because they lived their beliefs. It was part of who they were. Well, thanks for listening to that long story, John. I'm grateful for all of you. That's so cool. That's a good send off. Happy Easter from follow him, everyone. Come join us on our full podcast. We're with Sister Reina Alberto. This week, it is a treat. She is just fantastic. She tells wonderful stories from her time in the relief society, general presidency. And then join us back here next week for another follow him favorites.