“Dificulties” Written by: George Samuel Rowley

This comes from a copy of a handwritten document. George wrote this in his older years but didn't mention his missions with Cora so I assume it was written sometime in the 1950s. Some punctuation has been corrected for easier reading. Some spelling has been corrected but most is as written and corrected in parentheses.

As we grow older and look about us the picture we see is not a pretty one. When we see those of our own age and older becoming gradually more and more helpless and burdensome we are inclined to wonder what the near future holds in store for us. We know full well, so far as our family are consured (concerned) we are no longer needed but are becoming more and more dependant and burdensome to them.

So let us turn back and in memory live again the experiences of yesteryears. My parants (parents) along with other good people of the Church, taught me the gospel faith and the power of prayer. This has been a help and a guide to me through my life. My folks were apposed (opposed) to our marriage but I knew thru prayer that it was the will of the Lord and I learned at a very early age to heed the promptings of the spirit and it was but a very short time before my folks agreed that I had done the right thing for they loved your mother dearly even as their very own.

It seem the bright spot that stands out above all others is the years with their ups and downs while we were raising our family, the first a little girl with lots of black hair and brown eyes, a tiny fragile little thing to bring so much joy and love to a home. We watched her grow and develop it seems she developed almost too fast, in no time at all walking all over the place she could run under the table without even bowing her head, and talking a streak.

Soon came the school days most of them pleasant ones with a few exceptions as I think of this insidend (incident) my blood still boils up in my vains (veins). One evening Raymona “as you may have already guessed” came home late trembling like a leaf and as white as a sheet. Her mother met her at the door asking what in the world had happened. She held out to her mother several sheets of typing paper covered with some kind of scribbling. We found after she had recovered from this unpleasant experience that she had miss spelled a word and her teacher had kept her after school and had ordered her to write the miss spelled word 200 times after the first few words no one could make out the letters let alone the words. I took the papers to the principle (principal) and ask him if that was their method of teaching and a few other things that shouldn’t be written.

We had some trouble with her helth (health), she used to have sick spells about every 2 weeks. We had her to every doctor in Parowan and Cedar and no one of them could locate her trouble. About the last bad spell she had, we took her to Dr. Green. He didn’t say much but gave us 2 perscriptions (prescriptions). I had them filled, took them home, handed them to mother and she just stood there and looked at me. Then I felt impressed to tell her I don’t feel we should give her this stuff and mother said neoter (neither) so I, but what shall we do, and I said I think we should take her to St. George and that is what we did and Dr. McGreogor found her tonsels (tonsils) were the cause of it all. We had them removed and she never had another spell.

Then there was the time she had pneumonia, a type considered almost incurable. We had the elders come in every evening for some days. She didn’t seem to respond too well to the Dr’s treatment and then one night mother felt that they should use onion on her feet and chest. Aunt Minnie helped mother apply the onions. The next morning when the Dr came he could hardly believe the change, her temperature was normal and she was soon on her feet and well. There are just a few of many such experiences.

Then a little boy, a chubby, fat, little chap slipped in while I was away from home working on the road, so he was two or three days old before I saw him. Now we had as many kinds as any one had, and we were proud of our little family as we saw them grow and develop. Morris too had his misfortunes. The time he fell from Grandma Rowley’s (Mary Ann Ray) window on his head and cut a place on his head that took several stitches to close up. Then he ran his arm into the wringer up to his elbow and cut the end of his finger off in the lawnmower. I shall never forget the night when he had flew (flu) and it settled in his throat and almost choked him to death. You could here (hear) him breath it seemed to me a block away. He was frightened and his Grandpa Rowley (Richard) took him telling him that he should relax and not be afraid because being frightened made things worse and at that early age he took himself in hand and did as his grandfather ask (asked). Then Grandpa bowed his head still holding Morris in his arms and ask the Lord to make him well and his prayer was answered. The ability to take himself in hand and do a thing that he knew was for his bes (best) good has been and still is a great blessing to him and to those with whom he associated. We all know how when he was preparing to go into the mission field the evil power had to be pushed aside and overcame. It was not easy but was done.

Now we come to another baby boy (Richard Melvin). His first few hours of life was quite a struggle. In the first place the Dr was out of town and his wife had to take over. The baby was tiny and fragile, his first introduction into this world was to be doused first into a pan of warm water then into cold several times before he began to breathe normally. This resulted in a cold and took several days of carefull (careful) nursing to get him started off normally. It seemed that the first few years of his life was spent with wet and mudy (muddy) feet. As soon as he had learned to walk he knew how to turn the tap on and it became his faverite (favorite) passtime (pastime). In the very early years of his life he had what we call rumatic (Rheumatic) fever, something they knew little or nothing about, and he had quite a struggle for a number of years, during that time he developed a hobby of clay molding and writeing (writing). He wrote a little book of poems for me which is priceless to me and we still have several samples of molding, each with its story of days gon (gone) by. He was not interly (entirely) well when he went on his mission and it was only thru his faith and determination that he was able to stay and finish his mission and we know that his mission was the greatest blessing that could have come to him both physically and otherwise, and that faith and determination still carries him over many rough spots on to success.

And then there was another lad with black and curly hair, a chubby little chap (Leonard). The fact that there were three others didn’t lessen out love for him as he came along. As the others had done we found he had a hart (heart) of gold and he also had his difficulties in growing up. When he was very small he used to like to follow me as I drove the cows to the field. Then it was that I noticed that he became slow and I used to scold him for not keeping up with me and then I noticed that the back of his hands were swollen and then his feet and I felt very sorry for having scolded. When we took him to the Dr we found his kidneys were bad but he soon recovered from that. Then came the measles and they seemed to be more rough on him than any one of the others and we were very much worried for some time and again came the blessing of helth (health) until he came home from U.S. service with a ruptured appendix. We have always felt that his life was spared because of faith and prayer and that same faith and goodness still carried over into his own family life and he is looked up to and honored by those who know him best.

Then there was the baby of the family, a little girl (Shirley)with red hair and bright brown eyes full of love and goodness. It seemed she grew up almost before we knew we held baby. She was so much grown up when she was a tiney (tiny) little thing that she went to the well to get a bucket of water and the force of the water in the bucket pulled her into the pond and she received her first swimming lesson with her cloths on with her mother to the rescue. And the time she fell out of a tree on her head with many unpleasant results. Then came the bad ancle (ankle) with an operation which the Dr’s said would result in at least a stiff joint but the Lord stepped in and she has nothing unnatural at all for which we are very thankful. Now her good humor and love for people along with her tale not wins a place in the hearts of all who know her.

So you see now we have five talented men and women all with outstanding leadership in his or her line, each with wonderful companions who work and pull together to make this world a better place to live and a better people to live among.
Thus we are reaping a reward that all to few parants (parents) enjoy.

The Lord said “Honor your father and mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God has given you.”

No parants (parents) have been more grately (greatly) honored by their family than we have.