Speaking of grandpas.....

....today is my Grandpa Barber's (my mother's father) birthday. Frank Barber was the 3rd son of David and Esther Jane French born January 20, 1882. They lived in Centerville, Utah. When Frank was a young boy, he lived through a severe epidemic of diptheria. In reading about his life, I came across some interesting stories from his early life one of which happened in 1906. Frank was working in Garland, Utah where some members of his family were living. While playing baseball, one of Frank's fingers was torn off. Blood poisoning followed. Frank was fortunate to lose only one finger and not his life. Frank served a mission for the church in the Central States Mission. His father, David gave him three words of parting advice as he left for his mission; "Work, work, work." He returned from his mission and worked in the nursery business. In 1909, he planted the first nursery stock in Hurricane, Utah. Every year at Peach Days, he is honored for his legacy of bringing the first fruit trees to the Hurricane Valley. When he moved to Hurricane, he met a beautiful, young school teacher named Sarah Ida Webb. She returned to St. George in the summer and Frank would travel to court her. While there, he became violently ill with chills and fever, a recurrence of the malaria that he had contracted on his mission. Sarah took care of him for seven days and was a gentle and devoted nurse. After lying in bed for seven days, Frank went to the St. George Temple. David H. Cannon, president of the temple, gave Frank a blessing, promising that he would regain his health and never again have malaria. The disease did not bother Frank again. My grandpa was a man of great faith, very devoted to his family and his religion. On September 15, 1909, Frank Barber and Sarah Ida Webb were married in the St. George Temple. They had eight children. My mom was the youngest.

On the picture to the left, Frank and Sarah are with their two sons, Webb and Ralston. Two more sons would come, Keith and Garth (Garth died at an early age from an absessed tooth). Their 4 daughters on the right are Beulah, LaRue, Leila and Ruth. Sarah became ill and died when Leila, the youngest was only 2 years old. My mom stayed with grandpa and LaRue, while the middle two were sent to live with their Aunt Annie (Grandma Sarah's sister) at Cane Beds. They stayed out there for a year then came home. My Aunt Beulah remembers how they always tried to talk the mail man into taking them back home to Hurricane. I always remember that every Mother's Day, my mom would give my grandpa a present; she always said that he was her mother.

After the kids were raised, my grandpa met Margie Dalton. They were married in 1945. She would be his constant companion for many more years. They spent their lives in Hurricane, traveling once a week to St. George for many years to be temple ordinance workers and then working at the visitors center. I remember taking Sunday dinner down to them while they were on their shifts. I have lots of wonderful memories of my Grandpa Barber. He would hide Easter eggs in his big trees on his huge corner lot there in Hurricane and we would go over there for our Easter picnic and always enjoyed meeting with our cousins and finding the treats hidden all over the yard. If I could give him a present it would be these. He would need some new boxes because I remember as a kid, he would always offer them to us when we would visit him but lots of times they were just too old to eat....some of them even had mold on them but he always had something (usually candy) to offer the kids. He would probably be pleasantly surprised to find out that we have different kinds of Orange Sticks today; not just orange but raspberry and dark chocolate as well. He would probably eat some with his dinner and he always loved his sweets with his meals, not after. He lived to be 90 years old. We would go over to visit him most every Sunday evening. One Sunday, he was outside cracking nuts. I asked him why he was cracking nuts on Sunday and he told me that when Sunday meetings were through, so was the Sabbath. I'm sure my grandpa is in the celestial kingdom....he was a good, faithful man to the end. Happy Birthday, Grandpa Barber.