Sister Wife Sylvia

June 26, 2017 one of my sister wives passed.  Even though life was tough sharing a husband and the years after leaving polygamy we weren’t close there is a certain bond that sister wives share. One that is meaningful and that I will reflect on fondly.

Sylvias oldest daughter called me with the news and my heart broke for all the kids and my heart was heavy. I had lost a friend/ a sister. My mind went to the fond memories we had with each other. We were truly there for each other and she was a great strength.

When we were living polygamy often it was just me and Sylvia left to survive. Sylvia made sure we were taken care of. We were a team more so than with our husband.

I admired her willpower to stand up to Homer. When he didn’t have money for us she would firmly stand her ground that the family needed to be cared for and she was going to go to work and do that. My job was to watch the kids and she would go provide for us. I am so thankful that she did this as I didn’t have the courage to go out and work and I would have much rather been taking care of the children.

We complimented each other with the children. I was great with the babies and she was great with the teenage kids.

Sylvia was an excellent cook and when she made up her mind about something she went after it with a full force of energy and power.

She would work really hard and then come home for what she called a “power nap.” Then we would go clean houses together or load all the children up and go to the park for a getaway.

One time she took us to Vallarta where a cruise ship had docked. It looked like we had a little nursery school so she did her brilliant talk and convinced the worker to let us all on to explore the ship. Other times we would go watch as the airplanes came in and giggle at the type of clothes that the people would wear.

Another time we went to Tapeak for school clothes.  Mexico is not known for the safety of lone women traveling so when the car had a flat we needed to get out of sight. Sylvia skillfully guided the car off the highway and the 50 foot drop so we could camp for the night until daylight when she would walk to get a tire. We laid blankets on the ground and in the back of the car. We both grabbed a hammer and a wrench to keep by our heads as we slept.  We heard men walk by and one man came up and asked if we needed any help and offered to take us to his house. We were smarter than that and turned him down.  A few minutes later the man came back with his pregnant wife. We decided it was safe enough, so we stayed in their small house made out of small sticks, mud, and straw with dirt floors but we felt safe for the night. In the morning this humble man and his wife fed us, probably everything they had left in the house. We offered to pay them but they said no, they were just excited because they were sure to be the talk of the town because they had taken in some American people and what a treat that was.

When we left polygamy and moved to the states Sylvia used her talents to open up a furniture store where she painted and designed custom furniture and she started painting.

Here are a few of her many talents

It was a lovely service, but such a shame that the family doesn’t get together more often for pleasant activities. It was beautiful to hear her life story and a few of the grandchildren sing. There is now about 82 total at my last count.

Sylvia will be missed. Farewell my friend, my sister. I will remember and cherish the memories we had.

Return to LeBaron: Day 3

Monday May 1, 2017

We woke up early to head home today. On our first day in LeBaron we had done a quick drive-by of the house that daddy and I had built within the first year that we lived in LeBaron, but we hadn’t taken pictures, so we decided to make a quick stop and get out for pictures this time.

Street to home Daddy and I built

My daughter in law insisted that we go knock on the door to ask about wandering the place.

Here it is!

As a child of 12 years old, I helped build this place. It was one of the first concrete homes in LeBaron.

View from our front window. Across the street lived Ervil LeBarons wife Anna Maes house.

This is the well that I helped Daddy dig and dropped a bucket of cement on him in which I thought I had killed him.

The people that live there now was so friendly they let us go in and gave us a tour of the place.

Kitchen/ main living area

 

Daddy and Mothers Bedroom

 

Room all the kids shared

Nannettes portion of the house

Nanette, Daddys 3rd wifes area

The people living in the house now were so friendly and willing to talk to us and told us what they had done to make changes. It helped refresh my mind. The grandpa here was on site when Joel LeBaron the prophet of the church was killed. He told us stories and we stayed for hours. The little ones were fascinated with all the picture taking so we took a picture of all of us. Myself, the first family to live here and the last/ current family that lives there.

Needless to say our early rising to get home early didn’t pan out because we spent most the day visiting these delightful people. It was all worth it! To top our trip off Terry Lainey showed up right as we were leaving. Terry and Dale Lainey were brothers that family was close to ours wherever we moved. They were a constant in my life and always there for me. Little brothers that I treasure their friendship and hadn’t seen them since I had left.

Check out the other days in LeBaron

Fifty Years Gone By 

Day 1

Day 2

 

Returning to LeBaron: Day 2

Day 2: April 30th 2017:

My first child Felipe, was born on this corner lot. The original house burnt to the ground and now been rebuilt but this was the spot. It is much more modern than the house when he was born.
My sister took me to the mountain that enters into Colonia LeBaron. The mountain that as a kid I would escape to and  Lane Stubbs and I would pretend we were Queen and King of the castle because we thought the mountain looked like a castle. It was much smaller than I remember.
Our Castle
This is our castle view of Colonia LeBaron
 Our last visit of the day was my sisters place to meet my nieces and nephews. Some roads are still pretty rough here. As you can tell we had a tire issue. Tip: Always have a spare when driving in Mexico.
       
Look at the difference of scenery. We drove on this dirt road in these pictures above. This was a road that reminded me of the old Colonia LeBaron. After a  few minutes on this road until we rounded the bend to my sisters place. The picture below shows the huge difference!
My sister showed us her spa retreat she is building up here. I think she will be pretty successful with scenery like this. She also treated me to a nice foot rub and a delicious mango smoothy. What a great little sister!
We also visited with Harvey Stubbs and his wife. I was able to learn a few details for my book. It is interesting how you can live in the same place and have different perspectives. I really enjoyed my visit with some original Colonia LeBaron settlers.
After meeting up with the Stubbs and meeting my little nieces and nephews we continued to the last visit of the day, one of my friends. We were one of the few girls that had been my age in LeBaron at the time.
My sister was a great tour guide. I had so much fun spending time and getting to know her.
Recipe for her mango shake
Mangos, goats milk, pecans, honey
That’s all we got for the shake.  Most things are made with throwing in a little of this and a little of that.
To read more about this trip: