Faith Steed Howarth

[First glimpse of Mom's husband-to-be]

Walking up the steps were two girls and two boys. I looked at them and then never took another look. They went in the house, I stayed entirely away, had nothing what on earth to do with them, at all. And that was Alvin.

His [Alvin's] friend from Tooele and one of the girls [ ....] that's who went in the house. Well, it was funny because after that it seemed like if ever I was home, he [Alvin] appeared. He made me so mad.

I had lots of beaus. I was very popular and I was considered a very pretty girl and I was considered very in demand - in that church, it was wonderful. They had a lot of plays and I was always one of the lead characters in them and I had a nice voice. Boys just bored me to death, in fact and they were "handy" and I hated them. [Laughs] I paid absolutely no attention to any of them.

Let me be washing my hair - Alvin would appear. He made me so mad sometimes that I wasn't very decent with him. But he just never quit. He was always so darn nice. He never did any of the things that I hated. He never in any way offended me. And as time went on, you see, the next year tie went into college and they moved into Salt Lake. So, I saw him often. He was great, he took me to all. the parties. He took me to dances and I loved to dance. I got to know him. He was real a very nice young man. I had absolutely no problem with him, you know. So, we got to be quite good friends. It went on all the years that he went to college. Finally, we had A weekly date. He took me the one good theater in Salt Lake once a week. [Laughs] You know, He was awfully nice to me so the time went on. By the time he was ready to graduate, he graduated with such- high honors that he was given an opportunity to go back East for a whole year with every bit of his expenses paid and study on that [ .... ] it was good for him to be in. I wouldn't have thought of letting him if he'd wanted to even if 1 had been. You see, that's when he asked me to marry him. I told him "No" I was not a bit interested in marrying. Well he said, "Will you promise me that you won't marry anyone else until I come home?" he'd be gone about a year and I thought, I'll promise you that - I'm not getting married at all. [Laughs] He said, "Will you write to me?" I said, "Yes." So. I did.

That year, we exchanged letters and got to know each other in many different ways. Gee, he was the most handsome man that I ever saw and I really liked him. So, we became engaged. He went on another trip with his new job for a few months. Then, when he came back we were married. Later on - why I'm telling you all this - after we'd been married quite a long while, he said, "Do you remember the day when I first came to your house?" I thought back and I remembered that day and I said, "yes." He said, “I looked over there and saw you and a voice said to me, 'That's your future wife'”. He never let go of it. He never forgot it. He told me, just before he died, "You're the only woman I ever wanted". Bless his dear heart. Anyhow, that's how it came about.