A New Key to Freedom

Does this look familiar to anyone? Many of you may know that I have been having a few car problems the last couple months. I have wondered how much life was left in my old white car, but I found that it took me a lot further than Verlin and I anticipated when we bought it. We thought we would try and make it go for a year so we would have time to buy a new car. Thanks to Ammon and Jiffy-Lube it lasted two years longer than I hoped. In the last month or two, Ammon had to change the key switch, the battery, and the water pump. Then the fuel pump failed so I was stranded for a time. Ammon and I started searching online to see if we could find a car but it is hard for me to shop long distance while I am in Richfield.

I had a chance to spend this week in American Fork with Ammon's kids while Abby is at Girl's Camp so Ammon came to Richfield and picked me up. When we pulled up to the house, this was sitting in the driveway with a big red bow on it. A brand new Subaru Impreza that Ammon and Andrew picked out for me.




Abby came out and presented me with the keys. I cannot describe the emotions that I felt in those first moments--shock, wonderment, disbelief but mostly gratitude!

Wow! I have never had a brand new car. I hope I don't get too mental worrying about keeping it in brand new condition. After all, everyone drives used cars don't they? I will never drive it without thinking about the unselfish act that made it possible for me to have a reliable car and peace of mind when I travel.

Fourth of July Get Together

I thoroughly enjoyed the family reunion this 4th of July. I didn't have to do a lot of planning and everyone pitched in to make it fun. I was having so much fun that I forgot to take pictures. I will have to rely on some other family members sharing some pictures of the Timp Cave hike, the dutch oven dinner, swimming, barbecue and annual "candy cannon" activities. I didn't make it to the parade this year but I did go with Sonia's family to watch the fireworks from the Marriott Center. Before we went to the fireworks we stopped by the cemetery to put flowers on Verlin's grave. As we received the last regular contact letter from the Intermountain Donor Services they sent a very lovely medallion honoring his gift of life.

It was designed to place on the cemetery marker. The inspiration and meaning for the design is described as follows:
"The Gift of Life Donor touches and gives new life to others. The donor touches the hand of the recipient, and passes on the precious gift of life (the heart) and love (the rose). This magnificent and honorable giving of oneself is illustrated in the rays extending from the heart."

I was so happy that Aaron and Sherri made such a great effort to come a long distance to be with us, although it was for a very short time. They added to the spirit of the week. I was happy to see new baby Marshall. Thanks to Sonia, Katrina and Alex who each drove 2 hours to come and Andrew who came from southern California and Teresa's family who drove from Vegas. And thanks to Ammon and Abby who prepared the facilities and made room for all of us in their home. We surely missed those family members who could not join us this summer but look forward to next year. We decided that we would like to have the 4th of July be an annual Verlin Hatch reunion. We hope you will all plan your vacations and days off around that timeframe and try to join us in 2010.


We tried to get a follow-up picture of the youngest grandchildren but could not find a time when all of them were up from naps, not eating or crying or doing something else so I just tried to take pictures of each of them.

Here are just a few pictures that I captured of the weekend.

Some of us were worn out by the rush of activities but it was a good tired.