The Story of Patty

 Here is pretty much what I think I said at the funeral.  Also a few things I know I didn't but wish I did.

My mom was a master teacher and story teller. She wove our family’s lore and told it to us in bedtime stories and on long car trips. We all loved the stories of how we came to be a part of our family best and asked to hear those stories over and over. She wrote her mother’s life story and published it as her first novel last year.  Now I get to tell you the story of Patty. Hang on, it’s a good one.

This story starts with Pioneer Stock.  The pioneers were the people who left everything and walked across the country because a prophet of God asked them to. They were the people who did hard things—like living on dusty ranches in Arizona where you had to drive a wagon miles to get water, and like burying too many babies. Out of this pioneer stock came a tall cowboy named Mitchell Smith Bushman who loved horses and singing and dancing.  Out of this stock also came Glenda Porter, a red headed school teacher who loved books and learning and beautiful things.

Mitchell’s hard thing was that he had a one year old baby named Warren whose mama left and he had to raise alone.  He prayed to know who would help him raise his son. Heavenly Father showed him a red headed school teacher. It wasn’t hard to find her, because this was in Snowflake, Arizona, which isn’t very big.  And also, they shared some cousins. They fell in love and married. Not much later another son was born, Boyd B Bushman. They were happy of course, but what they really needed was a baby girl. And wouldn’t you know it? Just three years later, she came! Patty Ordeane Bushman was born at home in Show Low on February 18, 1939. She liked to say it was just her and Dad home that night because Mom was at a meeting, but we are pretty sure Grandma was there too.  Soon after came another brother, Darrel, and finally, a sister, Janene. The only problem was that Janene acted more like a brother. She would rather play basketball than baby dolls. So Patty became her Daddy’s sweetheart—the only princess they had.

As a young girl, Patty loved people and adventures. One of her favorite things was to go to Relief Society with her mom and play under the frame as the ladies quilted and visited.  And she listened! That way she would have things to say when she went visiting. And people loved it. She was a ray of sunshine. Patty would tell them how Sister Ellsworth was getting along after she had been sick and who was suspected to be pregnant.  She just shared all the news!

She learned faith early from her father, and he was the one who baptized her in the creek. She was wearing the white bunny costume her mother had made for a school production.  They did take off the ears and the tail to be more reverent.

Another adventure was finding a horse trapped in the back yard where no one could ride him. So she got a sugar cube in her hand, carefully opened the back door and walked backwards into the house, leading the horse with the treat in her hand. She and the horse made it all the way through the kitchen and the front room and the front door, and the only evidence left was a great ride and her parents finding the horse calmly grazing in the front yard instead of the back when she was done.

Patty attended Snowflake Union High school and during that time loved school, taking and teaching dance lessons, and playing softball and piano.  She graduated high in her class of 52 and went off to study at BYU. I’m sure she did well in her classes because I have seen her be a student and I felt sorry for anyone who had to compete with her for grades.  But the things she remembered most about college were all the fun things to be done at BYU. Arizona Club! Friends! Cousins! And dancing, and dancing and dancing. She graduated with a degree in elementary education and went off to Grants, New Mexico for her first teaching job.

While in Grants, she enjoyed the people in the ward, and they fell in love with her too.  One family, the Nielsons, decided she might even be good enough for their big brother Frederick who was away serving in the Air Force.  When he was home on leave one weekend, he showed up at the school where she was teaching. He held out his hand to introduce himself. “I’m Fred Nielson and my mother is making me meet all the eligible young women, so here I am.” His good looks and unusual pickup line flustered her enough that it took some time to connect this cool young officer with his family, but she smiled and said she would like that, but just then she was headed home to Arizona for the weekend.  They agreed to call and stay in touch. She was impressed. One of those calls led to an invitation to Reno for a long weekend and squadron party. She accepted, and while she was there Fred asked her if they could pray if they should be together. That scared her, and she left not knowing if anything would happen because he didn’t say anything else. She was a little surprised when he called a few days later and asked if she would be his wife. “That would be wonderful!” she said. Her first call was to her mother.  “I’m getting married!” she exclaimed. Her mother’s response was a valid question, “To whom?” They had only seen each other about six times, including the day they met and the three days they had spent together in Reno.

Their tenth date was to the temple in Mesa, Arizona, where they were sealed together for time and eternity on September 5, 1961.  Just three weeks later, Fred whisked her away to France for a military assignment. They had a wonderful three year honeymoon there, as they prayed and prayed for babies to come.  But no babies came. When apostle Mark E Peterson was there they asked for a special blessing, and he blessed her that if she would have faith, she would have children.

They came back to Omaha, then to California, using their time and talents to serve in the church and to fly airplanes and teach school.  In California, they reconnected with a doctor friend they had known in France. “Do you ever get any babies that need a home? We need a baby,” Patty told him. He said that indeed, sometimes he did.  Imagine their surprise when he called a few weeks later and said, “We have a beautiful baby girl. Do you want her?” “Yes! We want her!” They flew to Fairfield, California and picked up their precious four and a half pound Glenna M’Li who had been born on August 18, 1966. They couldn’t name her just any old name, so they decided on something that sounded pretty and ever so slightly French, that Patty made up. Just a year and a half later, Dr. Woolley called again and said, “We have a beautiful baby boy. He has a dimple in his chin. Do you want him?” “Oh yes! We want him!” Again they flew to Fairfield and received with joy the most precious gift ever—Joel Frederick, who was born on Groundhog Day in 1968. They were sealed to these sweet babies in the Los Angeles and Oakland temples as soon as the adoptions were legally complete. The sealer told Patty they were hers as if she had borne them, and she took that promise to heart.

They were a happy, eternal family of four when they moved to Colorado with Fred’s job with Western Airlines.  The kids were getting ready to start school. Tiny M’Li one day took her mother aside and said, “Heavenly Father can do anything, Mommy. If you pray and if I pray, he can send you a baby in your tummy.” “Oh M’Li, maybe we should just pray that Dr. Woolley can find us another baby to adopt.” M’Li was adamant. “No Mommy. Heavenly Father can do anything.” So Patty chose faith and joined her daughter in prayer.  Miracles do happen. Soon there actually was a baby in her tummy! After a troubled pregnancy that was spent mostly on bed rest, I was born on May 22, 1971. They named me Heather Faith.

Just months later, the miracle repeated and Patty was pregnant again.  Another difficult pregnancy ended a whole month early when Patty’s c-section scar began to rupture. That was the edge of survivability in 1972, and when Paige Ordeane arrived on May 26, just a year after Heather, she struggled to breathe.  They prayed fervently that she would have a strong will and survive. Let me just say, that prayer was definitely answered.

Colorado’s magical water produced another pregnancy, and Patty was close to delivery when they moved to Boulder City, Nevada in 1974.  They scheduled her third c-section in three years for September 30, so that precious Kirsta Janene could slide in to the world just before the school cutoff date and be closer to her siblings in school. When the doctor told Patty it would probably kill her to do that again, she knew all her babies were here.

The kids started school and loved having the best mother on the block. She would host bubblegum blowing parties, take us sketching at the lake, let us use paintbrushes with water on the hot Nevada sidewalks, go to the pool and library with us, and read and read and read to us.

Western Airlines merged with Delta, which moved us to Utah in 1984. Fred and Patty chose a house in Alpine, where they put down roots and built strong friendships. With all the kids in school, Patty missed snuggling babies, so she volunteered at American Fork hospital where her healing touch and palpable love gently awakened sleepy children after surgery.

Patty’s children left and married and grandchildren started to arrive, who were gorgeous geniuses, and were almost as much fun to hold and tease and love as her own babies so long ago.  She was able to attend two of their births, Chieko Jane’s and Willa Jane’s which happened exactly 18 years ago today. Those were gifts she never forgot.

Fred and Patty continued their adventures all over the world. They traveled. They served in the Las Vegas temple and in the Mt. Timpanogos temple and on a mission to Tonga. They visited grandchildren and went to their blessings, baptisms, mission farewells and weddings.

One day when they were very old, after she had gotten over giggling when people saw her white hair and treated her like an old lady, Fred and Patty woke up on a regular Monday. They looked at each other as they held hands together in their bed and marveled about the wondrous adventures they had together. They talked about how they met and their amazing and quick courtship. They talked about each of the precious children they had and their beautiful grandchildren.  They talked about their travels and their mission. Then they got up and went about their day. Patty’s best friend and sister Janene called to reschedule the usual Monday morning trip to Deseret Industries. In separate phone calls, Patty talked to Heather and Kirsta and Eliza. They made a quick trip to Costco. She put a lasagne in the freezer. That night, Lesley was headed north on I 15 and asked if they would meet her and Reef for dinner at JCW. They had the best time visiting and playing with the energetic two year old who had been cooped up in a car seat all day and had no fear of strangers.  They took a couple of pictures of Grandma playing with her Reef. After hugs goodbye, they headed down highway 92 to pick up a few things at Ridleys before going home. As they pulled out of Ridleys and were making the left turn onto Alpine Highway towards home, suddenly, in a blinding flash of light, a door opened, and Patty was through it.

And on the other side, a very pleased red headed school teacher was waiting. “Thank you for my story,” she said. And then she was scooped into the biggest, best, Bushman hug ever by a tall cowboy. “Welcome home, Sis. We’ve got a party here and it’s all for you!”  And she looked and it was true! There was Grandma Jane! There was Aunt Georgianna! Her brothers! All those Bushman uncles lined up like they were ready to sing. So many people she loved. Friends too! Ren saw her and waved. And Gail had so much to say.

“But wait! I’ll be right back, I promise.” She still had five hugs left to give: two in Utah, two in Nevada, and one in Kansas. It was easy, without a body and without pain. She flew.  Then she looked back at Fred and gave one last, tender kiss. “Goodbye, my love. I’ll see you on the other side.”

We will meet again.