A picture says a thousand things.

I started this post in July of last year. This picture was in the Ensign and I fell in love with it. It reminds me of my grandmother.
The photo below is how I remember my grandmother when I was a child, and she got older and more beautiful as she aged. Meta's life was not particularly easy. She was born in Switzerland and joined the church with her family. Her father Rudolf had had a stroke and was in a wheelchair. He was educated and could speak English -so when the missionaries came, he had the time and enjoyed talking to them. Rudolf's family was baptised and not much later he passed away leaving a wife and family. Lina, (Meta's mother) owned a home beside one of the covered bridges in Lucern. She had to bring in boarders to make ends meet. The boarders would leave their shoes outside their door at night and one of the children's chores was to polish the shoes before the boarders got up in the morning. They had a dream of emigrating to Utah to be with other members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Meta was about 9 (I think) when the family emigrated. In Salt Lake City, the school put her back into 1st grade until she picked up English well enough to move her up to her grade level. The family grew up and thrived in the area.
Meanwhile Meta's older brother Rudolf was in the army with another young man from Utah. They became close friends and decided that after the war, they would introduce each other to their younger sisters. Rudolf married Julia Clark and Meta married Newell Sirls Clark. They lived in Utah and Idaho (Bear Lake area) and had a sweet young life together. Until Newell was riding a horse that spooked and bucked him off. They think he must have hit his head on a rock, and drowned in the Bear River. He was 36 years old. Meta was expecting their 5th child and the shock of loosing her husband caused her to go into labor and my Uncle Ted joined the family. She raised those five children on her own (with help from her extended family) and lived to be 86 years old.

Newell Sirls Clark

Fast forward many years until Meta is old and white haired. Has dentures and arthritis. Her hands are scared and worn. She is wrinkled. She had been sick and I, as sassy teen, asked her if she was anxious to meet Newell again. I am grateful for her honesty, because she told me that he had been gone so long, she couldn't really remember what he looked like. What his likes and dislikes were and wondered if he would even want to be with her since she was so old and wrinkled. They had been married for only 9 years. Would she even know him? Would he like her after watching her live her life with all her faults?

Meta Margareth Wonderli

In my mind I knew that he would not see the wrinkles and white hair, but be thrilled to be with her in a place where her hard life would become a memory and they could have the sweet future of an eternity together. - So when I saw this picture, it depicts exactly what I envisioned their meeting to be. He was young, strong, and viable and she had lived a long life with many cares and trials. And everyone knows Grandma was young in spirit.