Reunion

cake courtesy of Colleen Peck (isn't is awesome!)

Malachi 4: 5 ¶ Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:
6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

JSH 1:39. . . And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers. If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming.

I imagine Hope and Francis Platt were a little more than excited and proud to see their family gathered together last weekend for the Platt reunion. I know they were there. The spirit that attended was unmistakeable. I hope all there felt it, too.

Deane is the only living child of Francis and Hope. We were honored to have him there with his beautiful wife Charlotte and their 4 children and 7 grandchildren. Deane is getting up there in years and he claims heaven just won't take him. We are happy to keep him here as long heaven allows.

Also in attendence were 4 of Russell's children (Lynnette with 8 of her 10 children and 36 of 46 grandchildren, Maralee with her daughter and 3 grandchildren, Jeff with one of his 5 children and 1 grandchild, and Kathy. Representing Tom were his 3 daughters and 5 grandchildren), 2 of Dean's daughters (Colleen Peck and 1 daughter, and Ruth Wortley), 2 of Marion's children (Wayne Smith and Dee Call. Representing Wilma was her son JD), and 1 of Lowell's daughters (Kristen Birkeland).

The reunion was a huge success thanks to everyone who came. It would not have been if you hadn't cared enough to come. We missed those that couldn't make it. It was so fun getting to know those I haven't met, and reuniting with those that I haven't seen for a very long time. Let's not let so much time go by next time.

We had our share of great food, lots of fun, laughter and just being together as a family. There were some tender mercies in that when I arrived at YLHF, I found out we had been double booked. Not to worry, they put us in an air conditioned facility that was really nice. The kids and some adults too, had fun paddle boating, rock climbing and wagon riding. We couldn't have asked for anything better.

It's awesome to see what has come from just two people. Hope andFrancis can be proud of their posterity.

Marion (Platt) Smith Family For 1958, left to right, back row: Wayne Smith, Marvin Smith being held by John Smith, Marion Platt (Smith), Edith(Dee) Smith; middle row: Lowell Smith, Helen Smith; front row: Wilma Smith, Myrna Smith, Merrill Smith.

Wayne Smith (Son of Marion Platt) Family

For 2004, left to right, back row: Eryn Smith (Horton), Nate Horton, Tate Henricksen being held by Kirstyn Smith (Henricksen), Gwynne Robb (Smith), Wayne Smith; third row: Brittyn Smith, Hayley Carter, Jason Carter, Tamsyn Smith (Carter) holding Elizabeth Carter, Alisyn Smith (Dickson), Ty Dickson, Alexander Smith being held by Kelly Green (Smith) ; second row: Ella Henricksen, Jared Henricksen, Cooper Henricksen, Camilla Carter, Eric Carter, Alyssa Smith being held by Rustyn Smith, Corwyn Smith, Isabelle Smith, Lauryn Smith; front row seated: Eliza Smith being held by Becky Jackson (Smith), Maridyn Smith (Weatherly), Joe Weatherly, Rand Carter, McKay Smith, Angela Pantuso (Smith), Joshua Smith.

Deane Platt Family:

Top Row: Grant Christopherson, Michael Christopherson, Fran Platt, Kurt DeWitz, Jayne DeWitzMiddle Row: Jed Platt, James ChristophersonFront Row: Abby Christopherson, Deena Platt Christopherson, Henry Christopherson, Charlotte Nelson Platt, Deane Platt, Alison Platt DeWitz, Joey DeWitz and Zachary DeWitz (standing)

Directions

I guess I should give everyone directions to the YLHF where we will be holding the reunion. Hopefully everyone knows how to get to Mona. If you don't know where Mona is, Google is a great place to find out. :)
Once you know how to get to Mona, getting to the Herb Farm is easy. If you're coming from the North, you will take the South Santiquin exit and head south on the main highway. It is about 4 miles and you will find it on your right.
If you're coming from the south, you will get off the one and only Mona exit and head down to the main road (about a mile and a half off the freeway) and head north about 4 miles out to the Herb Farm.
Hope to see you all there.

Platt Slide show

Thanks Fran, for putting together this awesome slide show of the Hope and Francis Platt family. It is very touching. If anybody has any more pictures of Hope and Francis Platt's children or grandchildren that they would like to add to this, you can email to Fran at fran@richardpaulevans.com.

A Letter from my Grandma Platt

I have some fun memories of my grandma, Bernice Platt. I have written down some of my memories of her in a letter format, as if she has written it herself to my children about me.


Dear Great-Grandchildren,
When I think about your mother as a young girl coming to my house, I always laugh. Her bangs always hung long so I couldn't see her blue eyes. I always threatened to cut them with siscors, but was never allowed to touch them. That girl was a tease (hum, I wonder where she go that from. Probably me) and loved to torment me to no end. She would hop the wall from next door to come visit in the bitter cold of winter with no shoes on. If I would have collected all the nickles and dimes I threatened to make those kids pay everytime she and her cousins would come barefoot, I would have been quite rich. I loved the time we spent together cooking up my favorite recipes, not that I really followed one, of course. Most of the time we would just make things up as we went. We bottled hundreds of bottles of fruit, salsa and other goodies. We baked homemade bread, and yummy cookies. She wasn't very good at buttering my toast. I always had to spread it to the corners when she wasn't looking. Your mom was the worst food sampler I ever saw. One day when I'd had enough of her picking on my food before it was ready to eat, I called her a P-I-G. I loved the time spent playing cards with her and her cousins. My personal favorite was playing Hearts. The girls always accused me of cheating, but I think your mother was the worst of us all. I don't know if those girls really knew what playing cards meant to me. It helped me to forget for a while the constant pain I was in. Living in a wheel chair for many years was really rough. I couldn't do a lot of things myself and I had wonderful children and grandchildren who spent their time helping me do the things I couldn't do myself, like washing dishes, doing laundry, wheeling me around, helping me with personal bathroom needs, etc. Your mom loved going for rides on my lap when she was a lot younger.
And now a word or two of wisdom from an old Grandma:With all of the pain I was in and not being able to get around on my own, I still made it to church most every week. I loved the spirit that I felt there. I also love attending the temple and with the help of good neighbors and family, I was able to attend regularly when I was well enough to go. I loved the temple. It was a place I could go and forget the pain as well, knowing this was one thing I could do for others who couldn't help themselves. My faith and love in the Savior was what got me through a lot of things. I am here with Him and your great grandpa now and get to spend a lot of time learning and growing and helping in this great work that is going forward at a very fast pace. It never ends. It feels so good to be busy. We can't do it without your help, though. Always stay worthy and prepare yourselves to enter the temple when you are old enough. Remember the heritage you've been given. It is a legacy born of faith and love. I love my Savior, my family and this work. It's what life is all about. I love you very much. It is true. Families really are forever.Love,Your great grandma Platt (Bernice)

Family History

I would like to turn this into a family history blog. I would love to hear from all of you. I didn't know Hope and Francis Platt. They are my great grandparents. I would love stories about them, pictures, memories that any of you may have of them. I would also like all of the families to do a little history of their families with family pictures. If we get a good response I will turn it into a book for everyone. I think it would be a fun way to get to know everyone and include family history. I will even let any of you interested in adding to this to be blog moderators. Let me know what you think. If you do not feel comfortable putting your info on here, we can make this private. I would need all of email addresses of anyone interested in keeping up with this blog, though so that they can view it if we go private.
Also, if any of you have blogs that you are keeping up, send me your links and we can add them on here so that others can keep up with your families.
I will start by including on here a letter written by Hope R. Platt to her grandchildren in 1975. I would have been a year old or so. This letter means a lot to me.

For all my dear ones . . . . Dec. 1975
Dearest Sharon (written in her own hand)
(Typed) I'm so proud of all of you because you bear the ancient and honorable names of PLATT and RUSSELL . . . and of the names of those you marry.
May Christmas mean as much to you as it did to me as a child long ago. We had rag dolls with glass beads for eyes and lots of molasses candy and popcorn. Our boys made their own sleds and would have great fun on the hills as you do.(small hole=missing words) strung popcorn and cranberries to trim the tree. My uncle Alma Pratt had (hole=missing letters) up Parley's Canyon up in the mountains and would always come down dressed in a red hat . . and a red face and a red nose . . to bring us a christmas tree. I remember one time my mother gave him a big bowl of bread and milk and I watched our "Santa" eating it and oh how I wanted to eat it myself. We had very little to eat then.
My father always carried a red handkerchief tied on his cane to put goodies, candy and surprises to bring home for us children. He used to sing to us many songs as we loved to sit on his lap in the green rocking chair. Both he and mother would sing songs together to entertain us. We didn't have records or TV then. He liked to sing "Uncle Ned", Bell Brandon", Katie Wells, etc the old Negro spirituals and we all liked to hear them over and over again. My father was only 16 when he came to Utah with his widow mother and family. He had known many hard times in his young life. He served in the Spanish American war. He was a hard worker and built a fine home and farm on West Temple, and did a great amount of genealogy and Temple work. He died when I was only 7 so my mother was left with a great responsibility for us children.
In 1907 when I was 18 I went on a mission to Chicago. I recall how we used to go with the Elders to help them with their cottage and street meetings . . . and help them sing. When they sang "Oh My Father" people would come up after and offer them money to sing it again. But of course they told them they couldn't take any money but would be happy to sing and to explain the gospel. At Christmas time we always had a good time in the mission Home, where I was a secretary. The people there were very good to us. My sweetheart, Frances Platt, went to Holland while I was still in Chicago and we wrote often. I still have many of his letters and cute Dutch post cards. I thought you would like to have a picture of me when I was a young girl . . . and though I'm now 86 I can still remember how it is to be young! (There is a copy of an old black and white picture of a beautiful young women - Great Grandma Platt).
Now . . Remember who you are and be careful what you do with your precious name.
May you always have a Merry Christmas to remember . . and all things you'll need in each New Year ahead. May our Father in Heaven ever guide and protect you and your dear ones.
(written in her own hand) Love and prayer for you
Grandma Great
Hope R Platt