1984

I was baptized in 84. I was baptized on February 4 and confirmed on February 5. We had stake baptisms back then and I think there was around 10 of us being baptized. It was such a big thing that it was held in the chapel and then the individual wards would go back to the baptismal font/Relief Society room. My father baptized me.

My friend Robin moved away after the new year and so I played with a 1st grader named Jennifer. She wore dresses everyday and would give me food out of her lunch box.

That fall I started third grade. Mr Merrill was my teacher. We had so many 3rd graders that they made our class. He originally was going to teach a different grade. Our class was the smallest of the third grade classes and we had a classroom in the basement of the school. The music room was the only other room down there.

I became ill with tonsilitis and strep throat and so the doctor put me on antibiotics. About the same time my dad got a job as a deputy sheriff with Minidoka County and went off to the police academy. I would get off the antibiotics and get sick again. In September (soon after school had started) my mom took me to the doctor again. While we were waiting my mom said she noticed my lymph nodes were very swollen and at first thought I had mumps even though I had been vaccinated. The doctor took one look at me and hospitalized me. They ran a bunch of test. I was put under an oxygen tent. I was very ill. The doctor feared I had leukemia.

That first night my mom had our home teachers come to give me a blessing. My dad was still at the police academy. The doctor told my mom I would be under the tent for about a week and then another week in the hospital if I recovered quickly. The next day they removed the oxygen tent and on the fourth day I was allowed to go home. I had pneumonia, mono, tonsilitis, and strep throat all at the same time. I stayed out of school for almost a month and then was not allowed to go outside until January.

During that time I had to spend recesses inside. I got to choose someone to stay in with me. There was one girl that seemed willing although she wasn't always nice to me. We became good friends and played together every day. She was in girl scouts with me as well. Then when I got to go outside I really wanted to and she got mad because she wanted me to stay inside to play (she had to go out as well since I no longer had to stay inside.) She never talked to me again.