Letters From Home

I am going through stuff getting ready to pack for the move. I found 3 envelopes with stuff in them. Things I had made for Mom and Dad when I was in first grade - stuff like that. I found letters from Mom and Dad that were written in March of 1979. I remember the situation - I was
in college and our FHE leader, without our knowledge, had asked each of our parents to write their memories of us and he gave them to us. I thought I would share mine. I have often wondered how my parents saw me and this kind of answers that. First from my Mom:

Janell Barney was born om 11 Mar 1957 on her sister, Barbaras, birthday. Her parents are Dorothy Cameron and LaMar Barney. She has 2 sisters, Laraine and Barbara, and one brother, Kenneth Ray, who are older. Janett and Lewis who are younger.

She was born in the Panguitch Hospital but she lived all her life in Hatch, UT.

She weighed just over 6 lbs and had a lot of curly black hair and dark skin. She was as wrinkled as a little old lady.

Janell was a good baby even when she was sick she didn't have to be tended. Her mother was in the RS presidency when she was about 2. She never made any kind of a fuss, just give her a book and she would be good.

She had the usual childhood illnesses, chicken pox, before she started to school. He had her tonsils out when she was 6.

When she was 3 her sister, Janett, was born just 1 week after Janells birthday.

She started school at Panguitch Elementary. I think her first grade teacher was Mrs Daly (she also taught her mother in first grade) Mrs Hansen was her kindergarten teacher. She was always a good student.

As Janell grew up she was quite a tomboy. She didn't like dolls and things most girls liked, altho she got one every year for Christmas. She would rather have a flipper, pocket knife, a bow and arrow. She loved bugs. She had caterpillars in bottles all summer long, hatching into butterflys. One time she caught a baby mouse. It was so tiny and cute, she kept it in a box. She was really upset when I wouldn't let her give it to her cousin, Doris, for a birthday present.

Janell caught nite crawlers for spending money. She done this every summer until she was around 15. She was thrifty with her money, she had to want something real bad before she spent any of it. She always paid her tithing. When her regular customers came for worms they always ask where the little boy was if she wasn't around. She always wore cut offs and her hair cut real short so they thought she was a boy.

She was baptized 30 Mar 1965 by her Father in the Panguitch So Ward. She graduated from primary and was active in the mutual program, especially the sports program - softball, basketball and volleyball.

She liked to cook and took ribbons at the state fair on her biscuits and muffins.

Michelle Riggs was her best friend but most of the time she was a loner. It wasn't that she didn't have friends, she just acted like she would rather be by herself. I have wondered since if this wasn't a front she put up to hide her true feelings. She never shared her feelings with you about things that were important to her. She spent hours in her bedroom with the door shut reading a book.

Janell has always been a strong willed person. I doubt if anyone ever made her do anything if she was really against it or talked her out of anything she really had her mind set on. Most of the time her goals have been good ones, She has always done her own thing.

She couldn't stand to see anyone picked on. She always stood up for the underdog.

When she was 12 years old she started washing dishes in the cafe. She worked there for 8 years. 1st as a dishwasher , then waitress, then worked in the motel office. She made enough in the summer to take care of her needs during the school year.

She liked to go fishing and hunting with her Dad. Our first real vacation as a family was to Yellowstone Park when she was 10 or 11. When we came home we had an Indian studeny 13 years old waiting for us. He was Kelvin Yazzie, he lived with us for 12 years. He and Janell usually got along pretty good.

When she was a freshman in Panguitch High she got involved in sports. Her teacher was Margaret Nielson, later Shakespear. She was Janells idol. She was on the volleyball and basketball teams. She once got an award for being the dirtiest player in a basketball tournament (it was a bar of soap.) She worked hard to get a girls sports program started at Panguitch. The first year the girls went to a state track meet the school wouldn't give them any money to go on so Michelle Riggs mother took them up and the slept on her aunts lawn in Salt Lake.

She graduated from Panguitch High in 1975. After graduation she attended SUSC in Cedar majoring in PE.

If she as had any spiritual experiences she has kept them to herself. I hope this is what you want.

I just wanted to add that I love Janell very much. I don't always agree with the things she does but that does not affect my lover for her - please tell her this.

From Dad

Janell came into our world on March 11 1957. She was a small baby but one of the best in the world. It seemed strange to me to have a baby that never made any fuss at night.

As Janell grew up she was more interested in the things boys play with instead of the things girls did. She was always interested in bugs and would catch them all the time. She especially liked to catch caterpillars and would keep them until they turned into buterflys and then turn them loose.

Janell was a good student in school. She was good to go to church and do the things she was supposed to do. Except keep her bedroom clean.

Janell had a great interest in sports and liked to play in nearly all of them. She liked to hunt and fish. We had to get her a shotgun for Christmas one year. She hunted deer with me several years and killed a deer one year. Last year when we hunted she spotted a big buck and tried to show it to me, I couldn't see it. I tried to get her to shoot it but for some reason she wouldn't do it.

Janell has always remembered us on special days such as birthdays, Easter Fathers and Mothers day and so on. She has always been considerate of me in other ways. I remember when I worked late at night I liked to have a cup of hot cocoa before I went to bed. Janell would have some ready for me when I got home.