Prologue II

 Shortly after returning from two years serving in LDS temples in Mexico and England my wife, Jewel, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.  Soon after we settled in our new home in a condominium on the sixth floor of a building in downtown Provo Utah, We were asked to give a talk at a conference for several of the local LDS congregations. We talked about our mission service after our retirement. The local church leaders hoped to encourage others in our situation to choose to do missionary service.

The prospect to giving this talk caused Jewel a great deal of stress. We devised a plan. I prepared and gave the talk. Jewel stood by my side and interjected her contributions when she felt it was appropriate. She either corrected me, expanded the topic, or interjected new ideas. The talk was well received and Jewel felt very comfortable with her role. She did a good job.

In this book I will tell a story of our life before we met, our life together raising our family and our life and our golden years and our life with Alzheimer’s disease. Jewell will interject her contributions or she feels is appropriate in this book as she did in the talk mentioned above. In doing this I am presuming that I can speak for jewel. I think after 56 years together I know what jewel is thinking better than almost anyone maybe even Jewel herself. When Jewel is telling the story it will be indicated by a headline--Jewel.