Faith Steed Howarth

[Some items mom wanted her offspring to know]

Now this other thing, for our children's sake, I want to tell you this because I think it is quite unusual. You see, we lived in Farmington [Utah] and the only transport between there was some kind of a vehicle - the old Bamberger. The old Bamberger train ran through there. Well, this was very shortly after father died when mother was still in bed.

Alta, my sister, was nearly three years older. She had a boyfriend. He was Ward Rollins, who she later married. He wanted to take her in to Salt Lake to see this wonderful play. We had a wonderful - they were real actors and actresses. It wasn't a movie. It was at the old Wicks Theater. He knew that mother wouldn't let him take Alta alone at night. Because it was a night and we wouldn't get back until real late. So, I'm sure that's why they invited me. [laughs]

So, we went. We had seats on the very top of the balcony. They were just wonderful. You could hear and see everything. It was "Mrs. Wiggs and the Cabbage Patch." We enjoyed that thoroughly. But, mother had made us take her new black silk parasol. Sr- She'd never used it. It was daddy's last gift to her. We had had that in the place where you check it.

We got out of there and we didn't have it. We made Ward go back. He didn't want to. But, we made him go back and get and we said we'll go on over to the depot. We never thought but what we could go to the depot, you know. We'd never been in Salt Lake, we'd never done anything. It was on State Street and we went that way and it was this way.

If we hadn't known it was not far across from the Temple, I don't know what in the world we would have done, but we knew that that's where it was. We got down there quite a ways and we thought it was too much. Then we went West. We went West too far, you see. We had no idea of it, it was nearly twelve o'clock at night. We knew we had to get up more towards the Temple. We started up that street and, oh, did we get in a funny place. First it was just nothing much, old shops and things. Then there began to be men and women on the streets occasionally. They'd be walking along, holding each other's arms, singing songs. We didn't see one that wasn't drunk. As we got up towards the Temple more, up that way, it was just mostly men. One of them came over and grabbed me by the arm and I yanked away, of course, like that. And as I did, he went like this and I looked out at the curb - we were walking right along the curb. Alta in and me out. There was a young man on a bicycle. He stopped right beside us.

I looked into his face for one minute. Now, I may be, you know, a little bit funny on this you might think. But that was the most beautiful human face I have ever seen. The man looked and he let go of me. I got away. We scooted along that street and he went right beside us. Right in the curb, in that little hallow until we came in sight of the station. There was poor Ward standing on the steps of the train. It was ready to go. He got us both on there and we went.

When we got home, mother was sick in bed. We didn't dare tell her had happened. When we got home the parasol was not hers. But, it was very, very much like it. I never told her and she never knew the difference. You know, I told you that I had seen an angel. That was the human face that I looked at, it was beautiful. It was funny, he followed us that far - he just disappeared. Now, I don't know how or where. But, that's what happened.

Now, I think young people hearing this might get the idea that God will look after them and will protect them if they're innocent and not doing anything that's, you know, is deliberately there and, of course, to me, I could never forget it for one minute of my life because we were really in very dire danger. For mother and all, it would have been so terrible. So that was one of my wonderful little things that I often think of.