Diane & Boyd

April 6, 2009


Dear Family,

It has been so long since I wrote about the latest happenings in our life I hope that I can remember all there is so tell you.

First of all, I want to thank Milton for all he has done to keep the PFNL going and his help in getting this new issue out. Our thanks also go to SandyKay who has offered to keep it going and for her help in coordinating everything. I will try to help her as much as I can but her computer knowledge far surpasses mine and she will be able to prepare the new site for everyone's letters and blogs. I am looking forward to having an expanded newsletter from both the Pope and Heward sides of the family. I have thought for a long time that it would be good to include everyone and hopefully, this will keep us all better connected and informed on what is happing in everyone's lives. We are still missing some email addresses so please send us the ones that we are missing. This new site will also be more picture friendly and easier for everyone to keep current on their latest news. I am hoping that we will also be able to have links for the histories for everyone and a way that they can be printed out. I'm not sure if there will be a way to include genealogy pedigrees and family group sheets. We'll have to see about that.

It was so good to see everyone at Mom's funeral!! It was such a good experience for us to reflect on her life. We really appreciated all the effort that was made by everyone to come from so far away. It has been so long since we have seen some of the grandchildren, cousins, nieces and nephews. We hope now that we can stay in touch better. There were many who were not able to come because of distance and weather but we hope that this newsletter will be a way to keep in touch with them too and that everyone will want to participate. We haven't forgotten about the CD of the pictures from Mom's service. It is still in the works and we want to include some better pictures from some of the children and grandchildren's families as we didn't have them to work with at the time. Please everyone - send them to either SandyKay or myself and we will include or replace them on the CD. I have been going to send everyone an email anyway so this will be better.

It is hard to think that Mom is gone and we really miss her. The PFNL was something that was very important to her and Dad. It has been going continually for MANY years. I am away from home right now but when I get back I will try to determine when it was first started. As I have said many times, not only is it is a great way to hear from everyone but it is also a way to record our histories each month. When I look at some of the issues from years past, I am reminded of happenings that I had forgotten about.

These past few months have been very busy and we have been away from home a lot. I was in Richmond and Logan in January helping with Mom and Dad and Boyd was in Orem helping with his Dad. We are glad that we could do this as those were special days with them. I have been working on their histories and hope that sometime in the near future I will have them done. I have the pictures scanned in that I want to include but I need to have some quiet time to make sure that I haven't forgotten something that was important in their lives. I read most of Mom's history to her while she was able to help me with it and she seemed pleased. What I have to this point is mostly of her early life. Aunt Elaine and Flora helped a lot and their thoughts that were read at the funeral will be included. Anything that any one else wants to send of memories of Her or Dad will be appreciated. We were able to locate Dad's missionary box and his journal so that will be a great help to add to what he has told us.

We are so thankful for all that Dick and Colleen are doing to help Dad and we know that he really appreciates it too. It is always good to go there and be able to see him. He was so glad to see all those that have stopped in to say hello and visit with him.

As many of you know, Boyd's Dad passed away on March 27th and his funeral was on April 2nd. He was able to pass away quite peacefully and didn't have to suffer much. We were very thankful for that. He had a great service too. It was good to reflect on his life and all that he had done as well as see many family members and friends. We are still here in Orem as Boyd and his sisters are working on settling his parent's estate.

As I said, these past few months have been very busy. We think that we have our home sold so we have been in a panic in between other happenings in our life trying to deal with that. We helped SandyKay and Cy get moved to their new home in Logan last week. We are trying to decide what is best for us to do. We won't know for sure if the sale will be final until the closing date on May 5th as it is never sure thing until you have the money in hand. We are thinking about several options. We have been shopping for 5th wheel trailers as we aren't sure where we would like to be located and this would give us an opportunity to look around and maybe do something fun for a change. It is a hard decision as trailers are a depreciated item. Maybe by next newsletter time we will know what we are doing.

We hope that all our family will be submitting their latest happenings in their lives. We are very proud of all of them and what is happening in their lives. We are so proud of Reese and Logan and their willingness to serve a mission. Everyone anxiously waits to hear from them each Monday.

We love all of you and hope to hear from everyone!!
Love, Boyd and Diane