Funeral Services of Eliza Jane Baird Sessions

Funeral Services of Eliza Jane Baird Sessions

FUNERAL SERVICES OF ELIZA JANE BAIRD SESSIONS

Held in the L. D. S. Seventh Ward Chapel, Idaho Falls, Idaho

Monday, May 28, 1962

Bishop Afton Orchard, Officiating

Family Prayer by Asa Baird

Prelude Music by Nanette Fullmer

“I Know That My Redeemer Lives” sung by Relief Society Chorus directed by Nanette Fullmer and accompanied by Lorna Wells

Invocation by President Lloyd Mickelsen

“Our Father Who art in Heaven, we meet in this Chapel this afternoon to pay tribute to one of Thy chosen daughters, who has completed her life here in mortality and has passed on to another sphere of action. We give thanks unto Thee, our Heavenly Father, for the life of this good sister, Eliza Jane Baird Sessions, whom we have known and loved. We recognize and remember as a neighbor and a friend, and one who, through all of the days of her life, has stood for the things that are good, who had high standards and always tried to be a neighbor and a friend. We recognize that she touched the lives of many people. She has helped many people and has been loved by all who knew her. And as we pay tribute to her this afternoon, we ask that we may be able to remember these things, the things that have come into our lives through her, and give her proper credit for what she has accomplished. We recognize that her family will miss her and will mourn her passing. We pray that they will be comforted in their hour of sorrow and remember that they have the Gospel of Thy Son Jesus Christ to comfort them through the plan of salvation and be privileged to enjoy her personality and the beautiful things which she stood for again. We pray for those who may take part in these services this afternoon that they will be able to say the things which they have in their hearts to say that those who sing, may be able to render their parts as they so desire. We pray for Thy peace and blessings to attend us here this afternoon and ask for Thy blessings to dwell with us always. We do it humbly, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.”

Life Sketch by Vera Farnes.

“A great historian has said, ‘That any person who cared not for his ancestors and forebears, cares not for the future and hot for himself.’ I am sure that the greatest desire of our forebears today, is for us to fulfill, or that each one can fulfill and live a clean life and keep the commandments as established by our Father in Heaven. Mourning Aunt Liza I am sure, it would be her greatest desire, if she could pass on to her posterity and her friends, is that each of us would hold steadfast to our teachings and to keep the commandments and life a good life. And her personality was such of exceedingly strong faith in God and in Gospel Plan and her desire was always to live a good life. In giving this account of Aunt Eliza’s life may each of you find something from it that may be an inspiration to you to live a better life as I am sure that that is what she would want you to do.

She was born August 17, 1881 of goodly parents, of Utah Pioneers, James Hyrum Baird and Fanny Emorette Sessions in South Farmington, Davis County, Utah, on what is known as the old Wilcox home. And in due time was blessed by her father. She was the 8th child in a family of 17 children. By the time of her birth her father had taken a second wife in polygamy and by this union (the second wife) were 10 children born. Eliza was named Eliza Jane Baird and called Eliza in memory of her father’s sister, who was named Eliza Jane Baird. She grew up in Utah in a polygamous family and knew the happenings and trials, hardships that happened to the Saints in the early days of our Church.

She was baptized on her 8th birthday, 17th of August 1881. Her formal education was obtained in the schools in Farmington, Randolph, Woodruff, Layton and in Syracuse, Utah, which consisted of completing what they called at that time the “5th” Reader. Later in the year of 1909, she went to a Nursing School which was supervised by Mrs. Margaret Smith Roberts and here she learned to be a nurse. After completing her nurse’s course, she rendered nursing care and aid to many of her friends and her relatives, including taking care of her parents in their elder years of life. She took care of her mother for over 5 years and her father for 7 1/2 years. She took care, for many months, of her maternal grand-mother. She also helped to nurse and take care of many other relatives and friends. It was always a great pleasure to her to be able to visit someone who was sick, especially if she could render some little services to them or kindness, or kind words. She was always eager to help then in a nurse’s way if she could. Eliza lived and moved around to several different localities during her life. She moved from Farmington, the place of her birth, thus to the the towns of Mountain Green, Randolph, Woodruff, Layton, Syracuse, Utah with her parents when she was a small child. When Eliza was about 7, her father accepted a contract to help build, and supervise the building of the railroad to some of the localities in Colorado. She moved to live part of the time with her father in Colorado in the local of Grand Junction and Pueblo and Suffola. After she married, she lived in the locality of Milo and Colton and her last home was in Idaho Falls. On the 23rd of November in 1916, Eliza Jane Baird married Darius Sessions and was sealed to him for eternity at this time. Darius Sessions was a widower who lived in Idaho at this time and a 2nd cousin to her by relationship. She had known him all of her life. She married into a family where there was no daughter and six sons already. Eliza endeavored to be their mother and take care of their home and do what she could to strive to give them moral and religious training. Eliza had six children of her own born to her, two daughters and four sons. Both of her daughters and one other sons has proceeded her in death. She endeavored to educate her children in a high standard of morals and faithfulness. This was more important to her then earthly things.

In October 1935, Darius Sessions, her husband, passed away and left her with a family of 5 living children under 20 years of age, besides the living step-children. Eliza tried to instill into their lives high ideals of morality and righteousness. She sent four out of her five children on missions. Two of these four children died while they were in the Mission Field. Her daughter, Berniece, died in 1944 in the month of October in Minneapolis in a hospital. Aunt Eliza went back when she received a word that she was ill and was with her when she passed and accompanied her body back to Idaho Falls where her funeral was held and she was buried in the family plot in Milo, Idaho. Three years later, her son Gale died in Novo Scotia, Canada while he was on a Mission. President S. Dilworth Young, who is with us today, was Gale’s Mission President and accompanied his body back to see him buried and to attend the funeral. Gale is also buried in the family plot at Milo, Idaho.

Sister Eliza Jane Baird Sessions always loved her Church and filled many positions during her life and did what she could to further the Gospel Plan, while here upon the earth. She was a Primary teacher in her early years. In addition, in her early life, before she was married, she sang in the Ward Choir. She spent 7 1/2 years in the capacity of Secretary and Treasurer in the MLMIA organizations. She served as Relief Society Secretary under three different presidents for a period of about five years. She was Secretary of the Genealogical Organization in her ward for 4 years. Following this she worked on the Genealogical Committee for two years and then a longer period of time she spent over 35 consecutive years as a Relief Society Visiting Teacher. She greatly loved genealogy and Temple Work and after receiving her own endowments, at the time of her marriage, she visited and did some endowments for the dead, in all of the Temples in America, including the Canadian Temple. This brought great happiness and joy into her life, the service that she could render to others. The rumor has been stated that she made a statement that she had received about 3,000 endowments for the dead. She was an ordained Temple Worker in the Idaho falls Temple for about two years, or until her health would not permit that she could do this service any longer when she was given an honorable release and she still continued to go to the Temple and do Temple Work whenever her health would permit. She has met many General Authorities and loved them always and tried to obey their counsels and what they asked of her in her life. The last years of her life she suffered illnesses of different kinds of afflictions. When friends and relatives helped her what they could. In the spring of 1962 she suffered a severe heart attack from which she rallied for a few weeks and was much improved. A week before her death, she was hospitalized for a checkup and then returned to her home. Before a week had passed she became very ill and was placed in the L. D. S. Hospital again. This was on Wednesday afternoon of May 23rd. She passed away from her mortal existence to her reward about 12:30 A.M., early Friday morning of May 25, 1962, in the Idaho Falls L. D. S. Hospital.

In giving a closing thought of her life, I have a poem which she dearly loved. She had a special loving for it because it was read at her mother’s funeral at Syracuse, Utah in the year 1909, when her mother died. She always said she would love to have that poem read at her funeral, so I should like to close by reading this poem today.

Sister, thou was true and valiant, faithful in a glorious cause;

through thy tribulations striving in the way of heaven’s law.

Dear Sister, we shall miss thee, at devotion sacred hour, miss thy voice in fervent accent testifying of God’s love and power.

May we emulate thy virtues, heavenly joys and blessings gained, in the realms with glory radiant and eternal home to gain.”

Remarks by Bishop Afton Orchard

“In the past weeks and months there have been several who have come in to offer assistance in the behalf of Sister Sessions. The Relief Society Presidency have been faithful in trying to see about her welfare. In behalf of the family I should like to thank those who have tried to make her more comfortable to do little deeds for her.

I should also like to thank those who have offered these floral offerings and those who have contributed, or will contribute in any manner to these services and offer their condolences to the family. I have looked upon Sister Sessions as a person who has been tried and tested to almost the very limit while she has lived here upon this earth. On many occasions I have felt the power of her faith. I have tried and have held on different occasions, Priests Cottage Meetings in here home for the purpose of trying to let our young men of the ward feel the strength of her faith and hear somewhat of her story of life that she might give to them in part, some of the things she had learned herself that has made her such a strong character. I felt that she has accomplished her desires in raising her own boys, those that I knew, have been faithful and honorable men and I have felt that at times some of our boys could receive some of that spirit from her in the form of a Cottage Meeting which might go with then throughout their lives and I would like to just say to these boys, now that she has gone, don’t let the physical things that she has left behind, have an influence in you lives which will cause conflict or an unkind feeling toward each other. If you will look back upon the experiences of your mother, she gave up the things that she dearly loved possibly most of all in this world when she consented to the Lord taking her only living daughter while she was in His service in the Mission Field. If she should still be in good favor with our Father in Heaven, after Him taking these blessings from her, would seem to her to be the only thing at the time, then surely we should overlook some of the things that might creep in among us and discourage us, or have a tendency to weaken our family relationship. I think that she has set the pattern, she has proved that she has an immovable testimony. I know that most of the members of this ward have heard her stand on her feet and bear her testimony and one of the things that she would say was that she hoped that she could stay strong and faithful to the end. I have often thought and wondered how she felt that there was any chance for her to fail at this later time in life with the faith that she had demonstrated throughout her life, but I assume that the adversary is not particular in the age of the body if he could take possession of it.

She prayed that she could hold on to the end continuously and even the last days before her death, two days before, she requested to be prayed over and administered to by the Elders and by the Priesthood of the Church. I feel that it was a privilege of mine to be at her bedside at her passing. I felt the comforting and peaceful atmosphere that attributed to her death and surely death can be sweet when we die in the Lord. Now may the Lord’s blessing be with this family that they might hold fast to the things that she has taught them and that through their faith and through their memory, may they make their family relationships and their ties become stronger. Something that would give her joy and be pleasing.

Our next number will be a Violin Solo, “That Wonderful Mother of Mine” by Velma Jordan. She will be followed by speaker Jack A. Wood, Jr., a neighbor. Then a Trio will be sung by Reva Mickelsen, Phyllis Williams, and Morean Orchard. They will be accompanied by Faye Andrus. Our concluding speaker will by Elder S. Dilworth Young and the Benediction will be offered by Samuel A. Hill. Postlude Music will be by Nanette Fullmer.”

Violin Solo, “That Wonderful Mother of Mine” by Velma Jordon and accompanied by Ruth Sessions

Talk by Jack A. Wood Jr.

“My brothers and sisters, I feel very humble this afternoon, to approach this assignment to say a few words and I think it’s a real honor and privilege to say something of such a wonderful person, Sister Sessions. As I thought about what I might say today, I couldn’t help but think of the words of the Saviour’s, The Sermon of the Mount, and it seemed to em to be so much descriptive of Sister Sessions. They are commonly called The Beatitudes. I understand that that stands for beautiful attitudes. There isn’t a more apt description of Sister Sessions than that—of beautiful attitudes. So, I would like to take just a few minutes and read from the Fifth Chapter of Matthew, Verses four to nine, and see if you don’t think that this is a very lovely description from the mouth of the Saviour that can be well applied to fit Sister Sessions. He says, ‘Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.’ Of all people that I have known, I think that Sister Sessions had a great deal to mourn about and yet, because of her closeness to our Heavenly Father, she had been comforted. In fact, in many other people’s lives she has been a real comfort to then in helping them to overcome their burden. And then He says, ‘Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are the pure in heart for the shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.’ Surely her life is above reproach.

She has been a living example of a lovely lady. She lived and behaved as a picture that we would picture in our minds of a mortal mother, and grandmother. She was modest, refined, patient, generous, and extremely thoughtful of others. She was like the quaint old-fashioned flower that she grew in her home. She often presented her neighbors with boquets. Huge rod poppies, dalias, baby breath peonies—each in its season. I can remember her bringing a tasty bunch of parsley early in the spring to brighten our winter-wear dinner plate. I can remember a year ago, when the tenant next door (the owners of the home were living in California) hadn’t taken very good care of this home. They hadn’t watered the lawn or taken care of any of the shrubs. The first thing she did after they moved, was to go over and water the apricot tree in the back yard. She stayed with that tree for the next few weeks, looking after it and taking care of it. We didn’t think we would ever see fruit on that tree, but sure enough there was fruit. Then in the spring when my wife and I looked at that tree, we didn’t think it would ever come to life, yet spring came and there was a blossom on the top of that tree and it will be a tribute to her for many years to come for the way that she took an interest in little things to make things grow. She was that kind of person. Her home, like her person, was always neat and clean as a pin. The one thing that impressed me and it say in the Bible, ‘By their fruits yea shall know them.’ You look at the fruit of Sister Sessions, you look at her family—I don’t remember of very many days passing but what I would see one of her children over to see her, over to look after her, to see how she was getting along. You know, I think therein, how we look after our parents, determines whether we are really religious or not. I think we see a lot of religion, if we go and seek, is how you look after your family. You see a lot of older folks put in a rest home and forgotten by their children, but not the case of Sister Sessions; her children were there to look after her. You know, sometimes death is sad, and I think one of the reasons why it is sad is because we have the feeling of guilt. We wish we had done something differently. But that is not the case with them; there are not regrets for this family. They have done well and they have done right by their mother. I believe that is truly right. They made it possible many times for her to go to Utah and California to visit. It was always a thrill to me for her to come visit and she wanted to go to the Temple. She has been a very choice worker on her Book of Remembrance. As Bishop Orchard has indicated, quite often she bore her testimony, both in Relief Society Testimony Meeting and in our Sacrament Meeting, and it was a thrill to hear them say, a Job of old, ‘I know that My Redeemer Lives.’ And it was a thrill to hear her say that, as we knew that she believed it. It strengthened our testimony as we heard those words from her lips.

Now, as I said, there is not the mourning here today that we find in many times at the time of death. There is a joyful, there is a sadness, true, because of the separation. But as we think about what has taken place in the life of Sister Sessions, we couldn’t be moved not to call her back. Is there anything more joyful than, as she steps through the veil, there waiting to greet her is her husband and her children, her parents? As I look at this life, I can’t think of anything that would bring any more happiness, more joy, than for a righteous person to step through the bail, there to be greeted by their loved ones that had gone on before. On the other hand, I can think of nothing that would be any more sad than for a person who has not lived as they should, to step through the veil. There would be a great deal of regret. But in the case of Sister Sessions, I am sure that there is a great deal of happiness taking place there now. We wouldn’t call her back from the joy that she is experiencing. I am truly grateful for the Gospel, for the understanding that it brings into our lives at a time like this and I think that my favorite piece of scripture is found concerning what takes place as we step through the veil. It is found in the 40th Chapter of Alma. Alma was talking to his son Corianton and I would like to read two verses (11 and 12) from this Chapter. Corianton said this: ‘Now concerning the state of the soul between death and the resurrection—Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that God who gave them life. And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of those who are righteous are received unto the state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow.’ Isn’t that wonderful to know the condition of Sister Sessions. May I read again where she is, the condition she is in, She is in a state of happiness. She is in a state of rest. She is in a state of peace, Where she is resting from all troubles, all care and all sorrow. Isn’t that something to be grateful for? That we have the Gospel of Jesus Christ. How fortunate we are to know that this is true. Again my I say thanks for the privilege afforded me to say a few words here today. May the Lord bless you as a family, I ask in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.”

“Oh My Father” sung by Reva Mickelsen,and Morean Orchard and accompanied by Faye Andrus.

Talk by Elder S. Eilworth Young

“I don’t think I have any words to express my appreciation to be invited to come here and speak on this occasion. Sister Sessions came into my life in 1947 at the death of her son in my mission and since that time, I, although I have not had a great deal of association with her, I have learned of her sterling character and her steadfastness and her affection for the work of the Lord and Church. It seems to me that occasionally, I think now more often that any of us realize, there comes into the world borne of the Lord a bond or spirit which seems to need no particular training or education with regard to belief and willingness to fulfill the commandments of the Lord. From what I can gather and have seen of her, I think she was one of that kind. And, furthermore, she transmitted a great deal of that same quality to her children, as far as I knew them. Certainly the boy that I knew needed no guidance. He was not worry to me, he stood steadfast and whatever I assigned him to do, he did without any quivocation or without any argument, giving me intense loyalty as well as the work of the Lord, in quite a difficult situation. Sister Sessions has always impressed me as a person who knew her Father in Heaven intimately before she came here and furthermore carried a great deal of that knowledge instinctively with her, while she was on the earth. Sister Farnes, the Historian, said that she was educated to the Sixth reader, a formal education. I don’t know how many of you young people can understand what that means, but it means that you learn a little bit of reading and a little bit of writing and a little bit of arithmetic. If you love reading you learn to read quite well, if you love writing you learn to write with legibility, which is more than this modern generation can do; they have to resort to typewriters to be legibly understood. Most of the older generation can out spell them three to one. Sister Sessions was that kind. I want to draw a lesson from that. There are two kinds of education, one is education of the head and the other is education of the heart. And often enough, and too often, when one is thoroughly educated in the head, his heart has been neglected. As to which I would rather have, I think I would rather take the education of the heart. This good woman had time to be educated in her heart and that’s where the majority of her education took place. When you couple that with the desire to serve the Lord, then you have a person who gives service. And gives it with the spirit so that one knows that she willingly wants to. I think that there is no service less acceptable than one unwillingly done, I don’t want that service. On the other hand, if someone out of the goodness and fullness of his heart tries to serve my needs, my heart swells with gratitude. Such was she. She did it because she wanted to. The spirit of the Lord in her heart prompted her to do it continuously. And apparently she never wearied of it. I have seen such women. They aren’t often found, but she was on of the “breed” a we say, of those who honor and have been honored because they belong to the Church and have accepted it’s principles and have lived them. We have many people who belong to the Church and a lot of then seem to accept the principles but they don’t live them. The very firs act that I know about and that I can pinpoint on that basis is the fact that she married a man with five or six children. That’s no easy thing to do. I have a daughter who now has eight small children. I often have wondered what would happen if my son-in-law should lose her and have to go casting about for someone to raise those children. He would have to do it in a hurry too; he couldn’t wait for the proverbial year so that the neighbors and the gossips would be satisfied. He would have to do it right away. Whoever came into that home would have to take over the habits that the mother of those children has engendered in them and remake them into a mold, or at least tolerate it, so that she can fit in. Now I haven’t heard anything to the contrary, and I am assuming because of her nature that Sister Sessions could do that perfectly with these children and foster children, so far as I know that’s what she did. Whether she succeeded with all of them or whether she didn’t, is immaterial, the fact is that she wanted to try and was willing to try to help that family. There is no doubt in my mind that she loved them. You can’t always tell by what happens, the motive of a person. Sometimes the motives appear, and I am sure that her motives were pure and high and good. What more could a person ask? I have learned from my own experience, that when a person expects to have joy in this life and I think that the Lord has promised us joy; it says that, ‘Man is that he might have joy.’ I don’t believe that joy comes to a person unless he has had tragedy in his life. I think that a person has to be right up against the stark tragedy of death, where it hits him hardest, before he can learn to know what joy is. Because joy doesn’t come from these immaterial happinesses which come around good things of life which give pleasure. Joy come from feeling the spirit of the Holy Ghost in comfort. And when the knife has been sunk into the heart and feel the healing influence of the spirit come and heal and smooth over and give comfort and peace to the soul. Then one begins to know what is joy. Now in that sense, I think that Sister Sessions had joy. I know I can speak from experience. I have lost a boy of my own, and I have some responsibility for the loss of her boy. Ever since the event occurred, I have searched my mind over and over again as to what I might have done which would have prevented that thing happening. I don’t know, I have not been able to find an answer, but I am sure there is one. And to the extent that I was responsible for his movements and actions in the Mission Field, to that extent, I am responsible, and I have found a great deal of peace and joy in the attitude of Sister Sessions expressed towards me. She could have been embittered. I have seen mother and fathers who have turned against the Mission President and all the days of their lives have harped on the fact that if he had handled their boy differently, he might have lived. Not her. Not once. She felt it was the hand of the Lord. She absolved me in the beginning from the responsibility I might have had and then, like the scriptures say, ‘she showed afterward a love and affection for me which showed that if she had anything in he heart to feel bad about, she long since had forgotten it.’

Between us there was a certain kind of report which we both understood having both had a common experience. Somehow we were welded together in bonds of love because of the bonds of tragedy. Now I think that makes a great woman. I think that fathers can forget easier than the mother can. After all, the fathers are little farther away from the children than the mothers are. It isn’t hard for them like it is for mothers. So, I look upon her as a marvelous woman, and I think that she was born with a covenant in her heart and that she did come into this earth with a little more feeling for the love of Christ and what it means in our lives than most of us have. I think that she carefully carried it and nurtured it and watched over it and did things to improve it, and I am dead certain that her later years, she died in peace, so far as her knowledge of the Gospel is concerned. And I think she is at peace and I think that she knows now all of the answers which I wish I knew. Why two of her children were taken in the Mission Field. Not that I think that they can’t be, for why should we think that because a child is on a Mission he is immune to death? Someone has to die, many of them have to bear their witness by shedding their blood. We always assume that a child on a Mission somehow is protected from everything and will be brought back safely home and most of the time that happens, but sometimes it doesn’t. And I would like to say to the brothers and sisters of Elder Baird: This boy didn’t die because there was anything wrong with him, and I don’t know his sister, but I don’t think that she did either, from what I heard from her Mission President. Gale Sessions was an honorable and as devoted as splendid and as lovable and as loyal a missionary as anybody could ask for. He loved the people to whom he was sent and one of the reasons for his death was because he did not have too much nourishment and insisted on going out over and over again beyond his strength. He was ill and even then tried to do what he shouldn’t have done. Instead of protecting himself and his health, he pulled himself down even more because of his intense desires to serve. His missionary companions who knew him most intimately, loved hime. There was hardly a man in Nova Scotia of the eight or ten that were there who wouldn’t have gladly sacrificed their lives in behalf of him, could they have done so and let him live. So loved was he by them. Now when I came out here and met the family on that occasion, I was struck by the intense loyalty and devotion of the children for their mother. I don’t know any of you boys and girls. Any more than just passing and to say hello and to have met you and shaken hands with you, but I do value the fact that you thought enough of me to ask me to come here and I would like you to know that I would share your feelings and respect for me and I for you.

Now while we have a time of mourning, and it’s right that we should mourn, I can’t see personally how anybody will be able to mourn very long, except for the fact that the passing and loneliness that comes from absence at the death of your mother. I will say to you children this: that as one approaches death, the nearer one gets to it, the more he considers it to be a friend. The fears that we had in youth of dying have long since passed and there comes a time in everyones life when he would be glad to shed the anchor and handicap of the mortal clay which comes with old age, handicap and shackles the spirit. By the time we have seen enough in our souls, and have had revealed to us enough of the joy of eternity and the joy of being free, the joy of the resurrection, that most of us by the time we are eighty, yearn for it and do not consider it to be anything to be avoided. As a matter of fact, we know that everything must die at one time or another. To have lived out a long life and seen children grow and grandchildren come, to have had the joy of association, while one knows that ones children have pretty well all come into the fold and stayed there. That I think is sufficient. And I do not doubt that while she might have wished to have lived a few more days for the sake of seeing more go one with her children, she would have been happy to have welcomed release and entered into the association with her loved ones who have long since gone before. I have had some association with her side of the family. Some of the Baird boys were my close friends over in Ogden and I think still are. I had Reva, a niece, in the Mission at the same time Gale was there. I hoped that I might see her here today. I don’t see her sitting there. Is she here? I don’t see her. Is she here? Hold up your hand, Reva. I was looking for the family. This girl is built of the same mould as her Aunt. Something about this family and the Sessions family which the Lord has blessed. You can’t join the Church in the days when it was in its infancy and stand true and nobody knows the problems they faced in standing true, and not have a posterity of the Baird family, there are those old pioneers who stood up to their tasks and stood up to their trials, and bring their children faith and love and beauty, will go on forever in their posterity. Just as long as that posterity will honor their ancestors and their memories, and longer and the posterity will be born with a desire to do it. That’s the promise and its been kept over and over by the Lord many times.

Now we all know, I guess we all know, that the spirit world to which Sister Sessions has gone and to which we all will go to eventually, is not far off. In fact, so close that if we knew how close it is, we might think there were ghosts in this world, because it’s right here. When this world was created, it was created spiritually and the physical world was built on it, and through it and the same manner our spirits occupy out bodies, the spirit would permeates the physical earth, and when one passes away I used to think as a boy, how far one had to fly before he could light in the spirit world. I couldn’t imagine how far it was. Now my imagination is in vain because there is no flying at all. Once you step out of the infolding cloak of the mantle of your body, you are in the spirit world, right then and instantly. And there stand those appointed to meet you. Now I believe that the ones appointed to meet you are the ones you have know and loved, who have been faithful. I don’t think an evil spirit would stand by to meet Sister Sessions. I don’t think an evil spirit could. I think that the righteous spirits of her folks who have loved her and have long since earned their righteous reward and are waiting patiently for their resurrection, will be there and greet her and she will know them. I don’t think that they look quite as they do on earth, I don’t think a spirit does look exactly like the body, but when the spirit announces who it is, the newcomer remembers and understands and recognizes and embraces with love their loved ones. So it is with her. You think she wont’ have joy in meeting her folks, her father and her mother and husband and the children who have passed on, her relatives, yes and her close friends, many of whom are as close to her as relatives. Those whom she has known and loved and have gone on before. You reach a stage in your life when so many of your own are on the other side, as against this side, you would rather be with them. I do not pretend to know whether she can hear what is being said or not; some have though so. Someone had a request they be able to attend their own funeral. I don’t think it matters. Whatever the law is, she’ll obey it. Anything she gets there or got there she discovered it was to face forward and march from that moment on to her next destination and don’t look back. She will go forward and march from that moment on to her next destination and don’t look back. She will go forward without regret knowing that those who follow after will catch up with her, and then when the time comes, they will all be united. Now we are told that the spirit world is a place of peace for the righteous, a place of rest, and a place of awaiting the joy and some development of the resurrection of the just which will place us in line to become in our Judgment Day, heirs to eternal life. And Latter Day Saints know what eternal life is. We know there are stages and degrees of glory and that man is judged according to his works. And we know that by the atonement of Christ and by accepting His teachings we make ourselves His children by adoption and become therefore able and liable through His atoning Sacrifice and therefore able to enter into His kingdom and be with Him in that place which we call Eternal Life. That happy place where having fulfilled all of the commandments and performed all of the ordinances, one may join with husband and posterity and forever build for themselves a kingdom which will be as great as any kingdom can possibly be because there will be an eternity to build it and all power given to those who build. As the Lord God of Hosts shares with those devoted souls, his rights and his powers, now go forward and perform and enjoy the fruits of eternal life and experience eternal joy. That will be her lot, I am sure. I am not her judge, but in my earthly way and with my earthly knowledge I assume, because I see in her the perfection I do not have in myself, I assume that I can say that she will have that. I say it because she wanted it and because she lived for it and because she obeyed every act which she could, and every commandment that came from the mouth of God, as she understood it. Now this doesn’t make her perfect. She undoubtedly had her faults. We in the Church have one happy thing, I wish we all could do it. I’m not very good at it myself, but I hope to achieve it someday. Many brethren with whom I associate, they have a claim and understanding that they will never say anything ill of the brethren, if the brethren have faults they will not mention them, even to themselves, and as a result, if we discover that a man is better than he is, we tend to see more in him than he sees in himself because he still knows of his own fault. But not mentioning them and ignoring them a man rather rises up to the good. Its like my great grandmother said upon the death of Brigham Young. She was there, she was one of his wives, she saw him die and she heard the words he spoke as he seemed to be gazing up into the upper corner of the room and pronouncing the words of the Prophet as thought he saw him standing waiting to receive him, and I doubt not in my own soul the Prophet was waiting to receive him because I think he was devoted and loyal to the Prophet all the days of his life. And grandmother wrote in her diary, she says something about having had her days when she had words with Brigham. She undoubtedly did because she was a nervous woman, one who was easily irritated. Sometimes she thought she hadn’t been given exactly fair treatment, she says, ‘Now I look upon him and he has shed from himself the gross of his earthly tabernacle and stands forth, the eternal son of God, free of mortal sin, ready to be exalted in the presence of the Lord because of his fine great work on this earth.’ Shedding his mortal clay. So with her. She has shed her mortal clay and her mortality and from this moment on takes on immortality and the first steps of eternal life as such she stands forth pure and shining before the Lord. That’s what it means to enter into the rest of the Lord in the spirit world. And those who obey the Gospel upon this earth, are promised that very thing. To these sons and daughters, children and grandchildren, all I can say is you have before you the memory of a beloved mother and the example of a good woman to follow. That should be your comfort and it will be a happy memory and it will give you strength from this good woman and from her forebears who have likewise shown the same fortitude and the same courage will receive strength, but you must stand up to it if you expect to arrive where she is and I don’t doubt but that you all are; I just say that you must. If you would have what she has earned, not only would you have the inheritance that she gives you, but you must also do the works in this world which the Lord expects us to do and those thing are believed in the Gospel of Christ, acceptance of His principles and obedience to His commandments and the life of service to both your fellowmen and the organized church. Having done that, you will discover to your intense joy that she will be there to greet you, and happy, indeed, will be the reunion. As spirit whispers to spirit and heart to heart, mother welcomes son and daughter. I can think of no higher nor happier thing than that, and that is my hope and wish of this good family, which I am sure will, given a chance and ordinarily take a chance, will easily make the grade. You haven’t but very few handicaps holding you back with your family. If you have handicaps, they are of your own making. She didn’t give you any and if you have handicaps of your own making, I would cast them aside and be as pure as she has tried to be. Now I salute her memory and shall always maintain in my soul as a happy one, happy in a sense that I think we both understood what it is to learn to have hoy, and to that extent and because of tragedy bring us together in what little times we have had together. I don’t know why that should be so, but it seems to be so generally in life. By Tragedy, if it be but I’m not sure that it is. The only tragedy in death is when a son or daughter crosses over, not having done the works; then its tragedy. I don’t care what age a person dies, if he has been loyal and devoted it is a time of joy. Now that’s not saying that it isn’t a time of sorrow. And it’s never a time of pleasure, but it is a time of joy: a deep joy which comes from the spirit of the Holy Ghost. May you have that joy, boys and girls, grandchildren, the joy and comfort given by the Holy Ghost, I ask in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.”

Benediction by Samuel A. Hill

“Our Father which art in Heaven; at the close of this service for Sister Sessions, we bow humbly and ask for Thy blessings to be with us. To bless us through the remainder of our lives. Now, Father in Heaven, as we have been reminded this day of her virtues, and her kindness and her goodness unto us and to others, may we cherish those memories anew, and may we as the offspring and as the children of Sister Sessions remember we bear the name which she gave us. May our acts so be that when we perform them, should she be privileged to see them, she may be proud to say, ‘That is my son or my daughter, or grandson or my granddaughter.’ May we so live our lives and bring to her name glory and honor. Now, Father in Heaven, dismiss us at this time and as we go to the cemetery where her remains shall be placed until Thou shall see fit to call her forth, may Thy protection and watchful care be with us. May no harm nor accident befall us and may all be well. According to Thy will and Thy plan. Father in Heaven, we are grateful for all these things and grateful for the many blessings we now have. We are grateful for the Gospel and its teachings and the things it brings into our lives; in the name of Jesus Christ we ask for Thy dismissal at this time. Amen.”

Pallbearers were: Edwin Baird, Warren Bird, Jacob Stucki, Gordon Larson, S. R. Wilkensen, Bp. Charles Williams

Interment in Milo Cemetery

Floral arrangements by Iris Nuttall, Oneita Austin, and Jane Risanmay