02 JunFamily–A “Moving” Experience

The other day my oldest son moved from a house where they were house-sitting into student housing on BYU campus.  It occurred to me that they might need some help. At 8:30 on a Thursday morning I showed up with my wife and four of my children. My daughter-in-law was well organized and had most everything boxed already. The work consisted mainly of repeated trips back and forth from house to horse trailer. Glory, my ten-year-old daughter kept Sarah-Jane, my granddaughter, entertained while we worked.

One of the brighter aspects of helping someone move is that you only have to do half of it—you help them load or unload. Unfortunately for me my son wasn’t moving far so we had the “opportunity” to help on both ends. You know what? It wasn’t that onerous a job. Attitudes were good and there was a lot of fun conversation and joking as we passed each other in the many back and forth trips. There were ten of us in total—eight from my family and the in-laws—so the work went fairly quickly.

Unloading was pleasant because of the beautiful location. Married housing on a university campus doesn’t bring with it positive connotations. You think of people stacked on top of people in a commune like situation. In this case the grassy little yards and the quiet, tree-lined walkways with lots of cool shade made an enjoyable environment to work in.

After the unloading was done my son brought back Subway sandwiches. We sat in the grass in the shade of the honey locust trees and relaxed. While munching the sandwiches I looked around. I saw that five of my eight children were present. Adding in my daughter-in-law and my granddaughter this moving experience had turned into a family experience. We were tired, but the mood was happy. My younger children never thought that they were doing someone a favor. Their big brother was moving and they saw a fun opportunity to be a part. My third son had come straight from working a night shift to be a part of the move. My family has its share of squabbles, but this move was family at its best. Sitting there with my wife, surrounded by our children, I was one proud father.