Tribute by Rex Smith, Son-in-Law

Nov 11, 2010 How do you avoid comment when your daughter finds a boyfriend who doesn’t quite measure up to the high school sweetheart that was clearly bound for medical school and this new guy is a little too short, skinny and his hair and beard are too big? How do you make a new boyfriend feel welcome and like old friends in your RV when the errand you are on is to get a pacemaker (this is when the pacemakers first came out and they had no idea if they extended life) or just gave you a little comfort with your time. How do you appear genuinely thrilled when the guy Carla was dating finally gets his act together enough to ask the perfect woman and daughter to marry? (and it had nearly been 3 years) Is it just OK to have to try to do a wedding a thousand miles away when you live in California and it is your daughter? How can you endure the political differences that your husband and newly minted son-in-law feel the need to discuss? (literally for years) maybe even today. How do you patiently wait with no complaints for your first of their granddaughter’s birth when your son-in-law is clearly surly because something (Brittany) is going to change in his life? How do keep from appearing like a know-it-all when clearly you are the only person in the room who knows the history associated with the discussion or what date the event occurred that every one else has forgotten? How do you smile when you prepare the perfect dinner and the very people you prepare for are late? How do you keep quiet when your idea of spring cleaning is another move and building another house? How do you settle for visiting the beach when you would love to live there? How do you tolerate the stress of getting an education because your husband has had medical problems that have made widows out of his brothers’ wives? I’m not certain how you do these things but I am clear who has, Almeda B. Christensen. She is the best mother/mother in law anyone could ask for. I am so grateful that I can call her my own. She is the kindest, smartest woman I have ever met. I am so happy that my wife and children have many of these beautiful traits. I can think of no greater compliment than if anyone could say “you are just like your mother” and that mother was Almeda. I love her and miss her very much.