Roland Burton Smith, age 88, died on August 3, 2009 at the Caribou Memorial Living Center in Soda Springs, Idaho.

Roland was born on Saturday, April 9, 1921 in Preston, Idaho, the oldest child of Nathan LeRoy and Mary Ransom Burton Smith. He grew up on a farm in Cleveland, Idaho and graduated from Thatcher High School in 1939. He served as a missionary from 1941 to 1943 for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Southern States Mission. He was inducted into the army in 1944 and served in the 28th Infantry Division in France and Germany during World War II.

Roland married Minnie Arlene Gillette of Tooele, Utah on June 7, 1944 in the Salt Lake Temple where their union was sealed for eternity. They celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary this year. Roland graduated from Utah State University and moved to Soda Springs in 1952 where he taught English at Soda Springs High School for several years. He retired from Monsanto in 1983.

Roland and Arlene served a mission for the LDS Church in Hawaii from 1984-1986, then at the London Temple from 1989-1990, and finally at the Manila, Philippines Temple from 1994-1995. They then served in the Logan Temple for many years.

Roland is survived by his wife Arlene, two brothers Nathan (Sharon) Smith of Yuma, Arizona and Ross (Leone) Smith of Thatcher, ID and a sister LaRella (Ted) Larsen of Las Cruces, NM. He was preceded in death by his parents and his younger brother Delon (Nelma) Smith of Las Cruces, NM. Roland and Arlene have four children, Roland K. (Nina) Smith of Pocatello, ID, Eileen (Phil) Bell of Sandy, UT, Terry (Allan) Rich of Farr West, UT and Perry LeRoy (Christine) Smith of Green River, WY, 27 grandchildren and 60 great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held Saturday, August 8, 2009 at the Hooper LDS Church in Soda Springs at 11:00 a.m. The family will receive friends and relatives at a viewing on Friday evening, August 7, 2009 from 7-8 p.m. at the Sims Funeral Home, 139 East 2nd South, Soda Springs, ID 83276 and before the funeral on Saturday morning from 9:30 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. at the Hooper LDS Church. Interment will follow the funeral at the cemetery in Cleveland, Idaho.

Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Sims Funeral Home. Condolences may be sent to the family at http://www.simsfh.com. The family wishes to extend their grateful appreciation to the Caribou Memorial Living Center staff for the care and love they provided to Roland while he was a resident there.

Rest In Peace, Roland Burton Smith. Great-grandfather, grandfather, father, brother, husband and much more than that.

He died this afternoon at 5:55 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time at the Caribou Memorial Living Center.

When we got there earlier today his breathing was quite labored. They checked his vitals around 1 pm and found that his heart rate was very high and quite erratic. Further, blood was pooling in his extremities, which pretty much explained his situation: his heart was not pumping the blood very efficiently. Consequently, his heart was beating as hard as it could trying to overcome the poor heart function. Meanwhile, his breathing was very labored as he was trying to get more oxygen into his body. The nurse said that the end was quite near and would probably happen within the day.

A couple of hours later he slipped away. Nina was at his bedside when he died.

Mother is doing very well. Right now for her it is a big relief. We’ll take turns staying at the house through the end of the week so that mother isn’t alone.

The funeral is tentatively planned for Saturday, August 8th at 11:00 am at the Hooper LDS Church in Soda Springs. There will be a viewing on Friday night and another one on Saturday before the funeral. Interment will be in the Cleveland Cemetery.

Yesterday (Friday, July 31, 2009) when mother arrived at the nursing home, the staff asked to talk with her about dad’s condition. He wasn’t eating or taking fluids as they couldn’t wake him up to eat or drink anything. He has a living will on file stating that they were not to take any extraordinary or heroic efforts on his behalf. It was decision time, they told her. If she wished, they would put him on an IV to keep him hydrated and put in a feeding tube so he could take nourishment. The alternative was for them to honor the living will and he would continue as is, that is not eating and not drinking anything.

They further told her that putting him on the tubes and bottles would only extend his life for an unknown period of time. He would not get any better. He would only continue a slow deterioration.

Today lots of family descended on Soda Springs as it is mother’s 85th birthday. My brother, his wife, along with his daughter Mindy and her family were there. Both my sisters came as well and Terry’s husband Allan came along. Nina and I, along with our daughter Heather and her son Michael, and our son Daryl and his wife Laura were there. That provided a unique opportunity to have a family council and help mother with this decision.

Everyone there affirmed that dad would not want to continue in this state. Further, mother said that if it were her in his situation, she also would not want to continue. There is a better, happier place to be.

So, no extraordinary or heroic measure will be taken. The staff said he could die within the next week to ten days. They will keep him comfortable and make certain he’s feeling no pain.

The end is very near.

Because dad had another “incident” last night we decided to come over to Soda Springs this morning rather than this afternoon. These are not normal TIA’s as he isn’t recovering any functionality, which would be expected from a TIA. His cumiden levels are high, and his bloodwork shows no indication of blood clots. They’ve taken him off of his cumiden for a week to get his levels down as they don’t want any bleeding episodes. His vitals were normal today, BP 105/55, O2 at 99%, temp 98.4, and pulse 86.

His left eye is drooping, the right side of his face is sagging. He’s drooling and has no big interest in his caffiene free diet coke. When he tries to talk, he can’t get anything out. He’s lost a lot of functionality.

During the bingo game at the nursing home this afternoon, dad suffered what is sometimes called a mini-stroke … which is in medical terms a “transient ischemic attack“. Mother called to let us know that something had happened, so Nina and I drove over to spend a little time with mother.

Dad is doing just “OK”. He is quite confused and frustrated. He can’t get words to form and come out of his mouth as they are in his brain. He doesn’t seem to know where he is and doesn’t recognize people. He’s got some weakness in his left side, most noticeable in his left eyelid which is drooping.

They ran a number of tests, all of which came back as normal. He was able to drink and swallow, and when asked by the nurse, he could smile and the smile was symmetric on both sides of his face. Just before we left he recognized mother and responded to her greeting with “Hello!” So he does seem to be improving.

Generally the symptoms of a TIA pass within 24 to 48 hours, so we’ll see how he is doing tomorrow. At the moment he’s not in any particular danger. The CNA’s were taking him to dinner when we left to come back home. More tomorrow!

A couple of years ago when Aunt Marj had to go into the hospital from the assisted living center, it was certain that she would die any day. Family members began making preparations, a funeral program was outlined, and an obituary was prepared. Then she rallied and became almost strong enough to go back into assisted living. With that, all the preparations were laid aside … and the obituary was lost.

When she passed away last Thursday, we began a search for the obituary that was written a couple of years ago. I’m sure now that we don’t need it anymore, it’ll surface! Meanwhile, I was tasked with creating an obituary to be put in the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News to be run both Saturday, July 18th and Sunday, July 19th. The scan at the left is what ran in the newspapers. Clicking of the image will bring up some additional information. Clicking again on the image will bring up a full-sized view, as is the case with all the pictures in the blog entry.

After I submitted the obituary to the newspaper, and finished making up the program (images of the program are on the left), Nina and I went over to Soda Springs to see mother and dad. While we were there, I saw that mother had a copy of Aunt Marj’s birth certificate. Further, the surname of the birth certificate was spelled “Gillett” with no ‘e’ at the end. That was the way Grandfather Gillett spelled his name. My grandmother (who died ten days before I was born) didn’t like that spelling and she always spelled it the French way with an ‘e’ at the end. So, some of their children have birth certificates with an ‘e’ and a couple have no ‘e’, including Aunt Marj. Interestingly enough, throughout her life she spelled her surname “Gillette”, including on her social security card and drivers license.

Aunt Marj had also left a set of instructions, particularly things she did not want to happen. They were things like “closed casket” and “no funeral service, graveside only.” She also included a couple of musts such as playing “Clair de lune” at her graveside service, burying her with the ashes of her beloved cat Sam, and no ending ‘e’ on her surname on the grave marker. Since funerals are for the living and not for the dead, we left out the “don’ts” and are trying to honor the “do’s”.

In planning the funeral service we thought it would be a good idea to have some time for anyone present to express their thoughts about Aunt Marj. Several did so. It was very touching and gave all who wanted the ability to be part of the program. My brother-in-law Phil (Eileen’s husband) was the last and I very impressed by what he had to say. Phil went to see Aunt Marj often at the nursing home over the past couple of years. He took her on rides, talked with her for hours on end, and they just became very good friends. Phil will really miss visiting with Aunt Marj, I think. He is one of those unsung real heroes.

One of the big questions was how many people would attend the funeral and would we be able to find six pall bearers without having to reuse people on the program. That turned out to be no problem. We had people volunteering to be pall bearers and the family was well represented.

Aunt Marj never married, although she was engaged a few times, one of which was rather serious when she called it off. She was well known and well liked in the family and a lot of people quickly made arrangements to be able to attend her funeral.

My favorite brother gave a beautiful family prayer. The life sketch / eulogy done by Merrill and Jean was delightful. John gave a masterful talk. Heather played Clair de lune as perfectly as possible. Kathy and Judy preformed a moving rendition of In the Garden. I’m certain that Aunt Marj was very pleased with the thoughts and actions of this day.

The funeral for Aunt Marj:

Monday, July 20
10:00 a.m.
Tate Mortuary
110 South Main
Tooele, Utah 84074
(435) 882-0676

Viewing:

Sunday, July 19
6-8 p.m.
Tate Mortuary
110 South Main
Tooele, Utah 84074
(435) 882-0676

Interment:

Immediately following the funeral service
Tooele City Cemetery
361 South 100 East
Tooele, Utah

Aunt Marj’s health had been deteriorating the past couple of weeks. She went into the hospital on July 7th because she couldn’t walk and a blood clot was found in her groin along with severe stenosis throughout her body. The doctors determined that her health was too frail to attempt to operate and sent her back to the nursing home.

I took mother down to Salt Lake yesterday so mother could see her younger sister. They visited for a bit but it was clear that visiting was very difficult for Aunt Marj. The care nurse at the nursing home told mother that Aunt Marj’s condition was “terminal” and that she didn’t have many more days to live.

My sister Eileen went over to the nursing home last evening to get a further update. After going home for a bit, she felt she needed to go back over to the nursing home. Eileen was able to be with Aunt Marj as she passed away about 3 a.m. this morning. Thanks, Eileen, for a very good thing that you’ve done.

Funeral arrangements are being worked out now and I’ll post them as they become available.

Goodbye, Aunt Marjorie!