Katherine

Since I have 12 siblings I will combine #'s 19 and 20 and just make one entry for each sibling.

When I was about four years old Dad took the family on a fishing trip to Scofield Reservoir.  I managed to fall into the lake and Katherine "fished" me out.  She claims to have saved my life, and I'm willing to allow her that.  I don't remember the event, but somewhere there is a family picture of me standing by a sheet metal stove wearing one of my sister's coats.
   Most of my early memories of Katherine are negative.  She was usually left in charge of the children when Mom and Dad when somewhere.  She ruled the unruly group of younger siblings with shouts and threats.  So, we younger siblings would taunt her, and call her a "bossy cow," a mantra that we would chant changing the first letter of each word to "s."  "Sasrine sis a sossy sow."  This didn't really sound tame and I'm sure she knew we were taunting her, which made her all the more unreasonable.  Joe was old enough and strong enough to challenge Katherine for supremacy at home and sometimes the battle between older siblings was terrifying to a little boy.  On one occasion Katherine had a chain from the backyard swing set with which she was chasing Joe through the house.  At least that is my memory.
   One of my most embarrassing moments as a boy came when I was about nine of ten.  I had just taken a shower and had gone to my room to dress.  So, I'm standing there buck naked just about to pull up my skivvies when Katherine burst through the door unannounced.  I don't remember what she wanted; all I remember is how frustrated and angry I was.  I swore that I would get even with her and bust in on her unannounced.  I never did, I wanted to shame her as I had been shamed.  Freud could write a whole book on me and that one incident alone.
    Katherine was a big fan of Paul McCartney and the Beatles.  She had a fairly good sized collection of Beatles memorabilia.  Mother threw it all away.
   I remember Katherine as a college student.  Her room mates used to look twice at me when I would visit her apartment in Provo.  I thought this was pretty cool, but Katherine warned me to stay clear of them.  During this time Katherine was driving a VW Bug, which I also thought was pretty cool.
   Katherine has told me a little about the years before I was born.  Mom and Dad lived in a small house that Dad built at Green Jacket.  This was across from the home that Israel Bennion had built, where my cousin Liz and her husband Allan Mitchell live today.  My dad was always affectionate with his littlest children.  This would generally continue until we were about five, at which time we because subjects in need of correction--no more affection--only reprimands.  This went hard on Katherine.  As a little girl in love with her daddy, she didn't understand why suddenly he was not affectionate with her anymore.  Katherine once told me that she thought Dad quit his affection because he was afraid that he might become abusive--that he was afraid of having affection for a child past the age of about five.  Maybe.  I alway felt that Dad just didn't have time or patience for older children.  I have memories of my dad's affection, but they are very vague.  For Katherine, being the oldest, losing Dad's affection was hard.  She often described her teen years as dark.
   There was a story about in Mormon circles about a general authority, I don't remember which one, and it doesn't matter, who said to a child that they would prefer to meet the train to receive the child's casket then that they would meet the train to receive the child coming home without their honor. (In the story honor meant virtue, or virginity.)  To Katherine this was more evidence that her father had lost his ability to love her.
   In the early 70's Joe and Katherine had taken to referring to Dad as "Chairman Owen," a reference to the communist, Chairman Mow.  Dad was very authoritarian and Katherine and Joe were both very taken with the liberal sentiments of those Hippie days.  Both Katherine and Joe still have strong Liberal leanings to this day.  My own Liberal leanings came from different sources than theirs--a topic for another time.
    Not long before my mission Katherine married Dennis Pincock.  Their oldest daughter, Angelic was sometime hired to babysit for us.  Angelic was born shortly before Uncle Jonny.  Mom wasn't pregnant at Katherine's wedding, but the joke about Mormon weddings almost applies.  "How can you tell it's a Mormon wedding?  Because the mother of the bride is the one who's pregnant."
   Katherine lived her entire life in the West Valley area.  We sometimes went there for visits.  Family gatherings often happened at Katherine's home.  The older children would watch videos or play games upstairs while the grown ups held court below.
   Katherine and Dennis were both educators.  Katherine taught Kindergarten, which she mostly enjoyed, though she often complained of administrators or ridiculous policies.  I think she just needed an ear to vent in.  Mine was sometimes available.
   When Katherine was a young woman--maybe early teen--she had a singular experience which has greatly affected her life.  She woke to see a young man standing at the side of her bed.  Of course she was startled.  She tells me that the young man looked a lot like her brothers.  The young man vanished.  For years Katherine pondered on what this was.  I've heard various versions of this story, and the one I'm relating is the one I believe to be closest to Katherine's own, but time plays tricks on memory, so I may have small details incorrect.  Katherine does not like to have the story told, so I would ask that you not repeat it.  It is her story, and to a degree it is mine.
   When Mother and I were married in the Idaho Falls Temple, Katherine tells that just before the ceremony was performed she felt a spiritual presence enter the room with great force.  At that moment she realized that the presence was our dead brother, Matthew.  She also realized that the young man she had seen by her bedside so many years before was Matthew.  On one occasion Katherine claimed that Matthew had helped her through the dark times of her teen years.
    Others in the family from time to time have claimed to have seen Matthew in the Temple or to have felt his presence.  I haven't had that privilege and sometime wonder at the stories told.  However, Katherine's story about the young man at her bedside I have never doubted or felt any uncertainty about it.  Once again, be careful about these kinds of stories.  Retelling them in the wrong context or setting will turn your sacred story into an urban legend.  So, keep these things and ponder them in your heart, but don't talk about them.   My dad had a tendency to tell Katherine's story, and she was never happy about it.
   Katherine is very moved by family history and genealogy.  More than any of my siblings she does family history work, and is at this time serving a family history mission in SLC.  She doesn't like sharing her research--not that she won't--but she feels that we should each do the research.  There's something to that.  She is also very particular about documenting dates and events in a family chart.  We have an ancestor who used to baptize his children at home in the bath tub.  Well, sometimes the record was not kept.  So an ancestor who had all of their temple work done was baptized vicariously to get the ordinance properly recorded.  After all, it is what is written in the books that will judge us.
   Some of Katherine's children have left activity in the church, a thing that has deeply hurt her.  It has taken her years to come to grips with the situation.  Mother and I feel doubly blessed that our children remain faithful in the Church.  We feel blessed that you are rearing your children in the love and admonition of the Lord.  However, I know that agency being what it is, not all of our grandchildren may remain faithful in the Church.  If this should happen, don't take it personally.  Don't think that you have failed Mother and me.  Love your children, keep them close.  Don't drive them away if they should leave activity.  If you teach your children to keep the Sabbath Day, to pay their tithing, and to prepare for missions and temple, then it is less likely that they will fall away from the Church.  Be kind to those who have children who stray.
   What would I say to Katherine?  I am grateful for her kindness to me.  I am grateful for her faithfulness.  I am grateful for her patience with me.  I would tell her to be at peace concerning her children.  They are sealed to her.  That can't be broken--not even by a wayward child.  So, love them.
   When any of you visit in the Salt Lake area, visit Katherine.  Visit Angelic.  These are families ties worth keeping up.  Only some of your little ones are old enough to remember such a visit, but it will be worth it for those who are.  Katherine can fill your ear with tons of old family lore.  She remembers my parents' and grandparents' generations better than anyone now living.