Faith Steed Howarth

[Mom's father's death]

Of course, when father died it was all very, very unexpected. Mother was eight months pregnant with her last child. She went out one morning - you don't know that house, do you? It's a big

house and then a porch and then there's a little paved path that led to a small little house which we used for washing - it was used strictly for that. There was a stove in it where they could heat the water. She went out there because he had gone before to light the stove and get it warm. She found him lying on the ground. The only of us that were there were myself - I was thirteen years old - and Grant, I guess. With mother, we carried him in and, of course, it nearly killed mother. When the doctor got there, he put her right to bed, he wouldn't let her in anymore, so we stood (I stood) over father. He almost came to once. He tried to smile. Then he died.

It was a very great shock to all of us because I never even knew that he was ill. There's a lot of things that happened to him in Canada that I'd really like to record sometime because he was a wonderful man really.

His idea of discipline was - he'd be away a lot, he was a very good business man and he'd be in Salt Lake a lot. When he'd come home if things, if they hadn't done it right, if the children hadn't done what they were told he was the one that took care of it. All of our children, when they grew old enough, had someone to take care of. I always had children to take care of. I had my two younger brothers. If they did anything wrong, I was to blame.

So, I'll have to tell you. He bought them a tricycle, no, bicycle and they left it out on the road where the trucks would come in. Our place was so big that there was a road all the way around the back and clear down to the barn. They ran over it. But, it was my fault, see. So, when he came home, I knew that he had to punish me. He took me in the kitchen by ourselves, he talked to me very gently and he explained why he was going to do this. I knew that it was my fault. So, I went out - he said for me to go out and get a switch, but you know what I took him? From a rose bush with great big thorns on it. I never will forget, he didn't say a word [about the switch] he just went on talking to me very quietly. His hands were down here [indicated in his lap]. He was working on the thorns. Then he took my hand and went [indicated a light tap with the switch]. I should be punished and I was. You see, I felt guilty - I brought him the thing [laughed]

But father was away so much that I didn't hardly feel that I knew him. After this happened, of course, mother was very ill. It was the next month her baby was born. That would be Doris. Merlin came down (he'd stayed up in Canada and hadn't come down with the rest of us) and took care of everything financial for us. He sold that place, bought the house [1556 15th East in Salt Lake City, Utah], got her in and settled, but she didn't get out of bed more than an hour or so at a time for several years. She was bed bound and she was very ill. The doctors knew nothing to do for her except to give her dope [drugs].

Then fortunately, mother [Mom's mother] met that osteopathic physician - that women, she saved mother's life. See, the doctors didn't know what to do with her. She [the osteopath] got mother out of bed. She got her off the Medicine. She [mother] was never really a very healthy woman. She had lots of little [ .... strokes?? ] several times. But, it was wonderful, because she was able to, you know. Then a lovely thing that happened was. We lived where they didn't even have a ward. We had to walk clear down that hill to church [the church was near 17^th South and 11^th East]. Then, that was made into a ward and guess who was our Bishop - the father of our present apostle, Marvin J. Ashton.

He was a wonderful man - He and his wife to my mother - a wonderful man really. I can remember Marvin J. Ashton as a little boy. They had built a beautiful new house. He was just a kid. He wet the bed. She [Bro. Ashton's mother] took us in there. I thought, "She didn't need to have done that." [Embarrass the kid]. [Laughs] But, look what a wonderful man he became. Just wanted you to know that he didn't have a perfect childhood.

That man [Marvin J. Ashton's father] was a fine man. He and his wife became my mother's friends. He took Grant - my brother Grant was different from any of the children, we were always real smart and good students. Really, I was a very good student. All of the others were good too. Grant was not. He wouldn't study. He'd bring 'the book home and if you'd read it to him, tie had it. But, he had something wrong with his eyes or something. I don't know. He was smart as the dickens, but he didn't like to read. I don't think he could read very good. Well, anyhow, this man, the Bishop took Grant under his shoulders and tie took him down. He had a store in Sugarhouse [district of Salt Lake City]. I can't remember just what it was, but it was not just a food, it was some kind of a building thing that he did. He gave him a job. He taught him to do it - he made Grant's life.

He never could study. We'd come in and he'd [Grant] just be fooling around. If we would sit down and read the lesson to him, he'd get it. But it was something we - I never figured that out,. later when I talked with [ .... ] we could tell what it was 'cause he became a very fine man. But, he didn't like to read. Anyway, mother didn't know what it was. But, he wasn't doing too well in school. But the Bishop took him and gave him a good start, taught him how to do that. He was real good at it. He finally married when he was at that place there.