Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Monday, April 11, 2016
Monday, March 21, 2016
Remembering Irene S. Flake on her birthday
Dear Brothers and Sisters, my children and grandchildren,
My mother, Irene Stratton Flake's birthday was on March 18th. She would have been 109 years old. I want to preserve her memory. Here are some of my memories of my mother that I am thinking about on her birthday. These are in no particular order but just as I think about them.
Celebrating my youngest brother's birthday on the same day as our Mother's birthday and the day after the Relief Society celebrates it's birthday.
The great love that Daddy and Mother had for each other and the joy they had being together. They liked to go on trips together and my memories are that Daddy always came first in her life. Mother always did everything she could to make Daddy happy—fixing special meals when he had stomach problems, traveling with him, being his scribe, etc. ·
Mother was a great helper to Daddy when he served as Bishop—she helped with tithing settlement from the big desk in our living room, gave parties to the servicemen when they came home on furloughs, etc.
Mother had several businesses that she ran from our home where she could first be our Mother and then add to our family income and give service to others—bookstore, picking up and delivering dry cleaning, writing for the newspaper, ordering movies for the twice weekly ward theatre, etc. ·
Mother was always interested in our activities—I remember all her help when I was married and coming back to Chicago to help our when my first baby was born. She was always there for all of us when we needed her.
Mother was the one that wrote us each week while we were on a mission, at BYU, and away from home. Daddy would sometimes tell her to tell us something but she was the one that kept the correspondence going.
Mother and Daddy came and picked all of us up from our missions when we had successfully fulfilled our missionary assignment. They let us know how happy they were that we had served well.
One of the biggest motivations that I had to do well was the motivation to make my mother proud of my activities. I always enjoyed reporting in to her and wanted to make the report a good one. Even at 95 years of age she was interested in each one of her children, grand children and great grandchildren. She knew each one of us and our activities. She loved to visit about what we were all doing.
Mother had a keen mind—just a month or so before she died she was saying the Articles of Faith and naming the presidents of the church. She would go down listing all her grandchildren and great grandchildren and knew them all by name. She graduated top of her class out of High School and in those days not many went on to college. She worked hard at NAU to put herself through to get her teaching certificate.
Mother was a people person. She had lots of friends and always remembered what they were involved in and would visit with them about their interests. She knew everyone. I could ask her about anyone and she would know if or how they were related and their interests, etc.
Mother loved the temple. She enjoyed her temple friends and being involved. She especially liked to help with the new brides, and liked to help with the temple weddings of her daughters and granddaughters. Even though she didn’t speak Spanish she learned the temple ceremonies in Spanish and made lots of friends with the Mexican people that would come to the temple.
Mother loved books. She enjoyed her home bookstore and always provided good reading material for all of us as we were growing up. Whenever I had been away from home for a length of time one of my first stops upon returning home was to see what the new books were and made plans to read them. ·
I can remember of always having family prayer as we were growing up and home night before it was promoted by the church. I remember cookouts on the hill, taking lunch to the cowboys, performing for the family in the “lodge”, etc. Christmas and Thanksgiving were big holidays in my growing up years. The races to the tree have been carried down to our children and grandchildren. I remember the big Thanksgiving dinners.
Mother was a good cook. She made great rolls, pies, carrot pudding and cinnamon rolls. I remember the Saturday night cinnamon rolls after the house was clean and ready for Sunday and we had our Saturday night baths and maybe a movie at the ward movie theater. I remember coming home to the aroma of freshly baked bread.
Some of my family has commented that I am looking more like my mother every day. This is to be a great compliment. My hope is that I can live my life so that Mother and Daddy will be happy with my activities and that I can endure faithfully to the end of my life like they did and that all of our posterity will honor their name and their lives by the way they live their lives. Thank you Mother and Daddy for your great example and for the great heritage you left all of your posterity.
I hope that my brothers and sisters, children and grandchildren can feel my love for each one of you.
Lots of love now and forever,
Mother had a keen mind—just a month or so before she died she was saying the Articles of Faith and naming the presidents of the church. She would go down listing all her grandchildren and great grandchildren and knew them all by name. She graduated top of her class out of High School and in those days not many went on to college. She worked hard at NAU to put herself through to get her teaching certificate.
Mother was a people person. She had lots of friends and always remembered what they were involved in and would visit with them about their interests. She knew everyone. I could ask her about anyone and she would know if or how they were related and their interests, etc.
Mother loved the temple. She enjoyed her temple friends and being involved. She especially liked to help with the new brides, and liked to help with the temple weddings of her daughters and granddaughters. Even though she didn’t speak Spanish she learned the temple ceremonies in Spanish and made lots of friends with the Mexican people that would come to the temple.
Mother loved books. She enjoyed her home bookstore and always provided good reading material for all of us as we were growing up. Whenever I had been away from home for a length of time one of my first stops upon returning home was to see what the new books were and made plans to read them. ·
I can remember of always having family prayer as we were growing up and home night before it was promoted by the church. I remember cookouts on the hill, taking lunch to the cowboys, performing for the family in the “lodge”, etc. Christmas and Thanksgiving were big holidays in my growing up years. The races to the tree have been carried down to our children and grandchildren. I remember the big Thanksgiving dinners.
Mother was a good cook. She made great rolls, pies, carrot pudding and cinnamon rolls. I remember the Saturday night cinnamon rolls after the house was clean and ready for Sunday and we had our Saturday night baths and maybe a movie at the ward movie theater. I remember coming home to the aroma of freshly baked bread.
Some of my family has commented that I am looking more like my mother every day. This is to be a great compliment. My hope is that I can live my life so that Mother and Daddy will be happy with my activities and that I can endure faithfully to the end of my life like they did and that all of our posterity will honor their name and their lives by the way they live their lives. Thank you Mother and Daddy for your great example and for the great heritage you left all of your posterity.
I hope that my brothers and sisters, children and grandchildren can feel my love for each one of you.
Lots of love now and forever,
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Remembering the birthdays of two great men
January 27, 2016
Dear Family,
I am thinking of the two great men who have birthday anniversaries today. Granddaddy Flake (Bruce Merlin Flake) was born on January 27, 1907 and our son, Donald Bruce Richardson on January 27, 1972.
I wish more of you could have known my Daddy. I am so grateful that he is my Dad and for being born into an LDS home where Daddy and Mother taught me the gospel both in our home nights and by their example. I am grateful for the great influence Daddy has been in my life. He taught me to be honest, trustworthy and dependable. . Raising a good and righteous family was the top priority for my Daddy and Mother as they worked together. I have so many memories of a home where I felt loved. I had and continue to have a great respect for my father and a desire to make him happy with my choices in life.
Some of his teachings I remember are, "Remember Who You Are", "It is darkest just before the dawn", and “Hold Tight to the Willows". He taught me to be dependable and to be completely honest in all of my dealings. Daddy taught me the joy of missionary service as I remember all the missionary experiences he shared with us and his great love for the Mexican people, Daddy taught me the importance of temple work with the example he and mother showed to travel to Mesa to the temple so often and to sacrifice whatever to be there to fulfill their assignments. Daddy taught me leadership as he served so faithfully and well as bishop in Snowflake ward and in the high council. Daddy taught me the love of family. He made me want to make him happy with the choices I make in my life.
Donald only lived for seven hours. It was such a great blessing for him to come to our home. . I think of the quote of Joseph Smith that says, “The Lord takes many away, even in infancy, that they may escape the envy of man, and the sorrow and evils of this present world; they were too pure, too lovely, to live on earth; therefore if rightly considered, instead of mourning we have reason to rejoice.” I take comfort in knowing that Donald is with his brother Dale, his, Dad and Grandparents. I like to think that they are missionary companions .
Almost every day I think of these great men and the principles of the gospel that they taught me. I am a better person because of the lives of my eternal companion, Jay M. Richardson, my father, Bruce Merlin Flake and my son, Donald Bruce Richardson. They all make me want to strive to better live the gospel so that I can be with them again.
Lots of love now and forever,
Mom, Grandma, Lavona
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Monday, December 14, 2015
James and Agnes Flake
James Madison Flake (1815-1850) and Agnes Haley Love Flake(1819--1855)
Each lived only to be 35 years old
What if James and Agnes Flake would not have opened their Mississippi door to the missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Saints?
What if James and Agnes would have decided to not be baptized yielding to pressure of family and friends to not do so?
What if James and Agnes would have not sold their home and land at a sacrificed price and freed their slaves to move more than 670 miles to join the Saints in Nauvoo?
What if James and Agnes, after two years in Nauvoo, would not have left a new home to move again over 300 miles to Winter Quarters, Iowa?
What if James and Agnes would have said in Winter Quarters after losing three of their six children, “We won’t move again, more than 900 miles to the Salt Lake Valley.
What if James and Agnes would have said to Brigham Young after two years in the Salt Lake Valley, “We are just getting started and James can’t accept your call to look for where Church members can settle in California”?
What if Agnes, when informed of the death of James would have said, “That exempts me and my children from the prophet’s call to relocate in San Bernardino; another move of more than 600 miles?”
What if Agnes would have accepted the offer of her brother to return, with her children, to the family home in North Carolina agreeing to, “All you have to do is give up your Mormonism.” She assured him that would never happen. Her dying counsel to her children was to always live true to the faith.
Now, nearly 175 years later, more than 15,000 descendants honor James Madison and Agnes Haley Love Flake for being steadfast and immovable, for keeping their covenants, and becoming the foundation of our eternal Flake Family.
Will we, their posterity, carry the torch they so brightly carried? Will our testimony of the gospel continue to sustain us as it did them?
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
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