Grandma Lois

Story by Grandma Lois with photographs from her family. It all happened in 2015, because our vacation home at Lake Havasu wasn’t being used enough. After having had the place for almost fifty years, it was difficult to part with, but the expenses weren’t worth the one or two times a year the house was used. So I sold it and did well on it financially. My daughter suggested that instead of adding the income to the family trust, I should enjoy it with the family.

Fels-Naptha bar soap. My mother always made a big deal about spring cleaning, even though the house was always kept neat and clean, thanks to my sister and me. Every Saturday, the two of us cleaned the house — she’d clean the downstairs and back porch; my job was the upstairs and front porch.

It all began in 1964, when my husband, Evan, our two children, and I were planning a Yellowstone vacation. We decided to stop in Utah to visit Ted, my husband’s best friend when he was growing up in East Los Angeles. Little did we know that this visit would begin family traditions that would pass from generation to generation. Evan and Ted hadn’t seen each other since Ted had moved to Utah, so their reunion was warm and loving.