We were all Mormon. Religion played an important part in our lives. The church we attended was right around the block and we all knew it as the Orem 5th Ward. We spent summers in Primary class and marching in the July 24th Pioneer's Day Parade in our best pioneer costumes and bikes decorated with crepe paper. Winters were spent sliding down the sloping stairs that lead up to the church doors and playing under the quilts being sewn. There was hide 'n go seek and kissing boys along with the stuff that was "supposed" to be happening there like road shows and basketball games. This was the church where our parents married and we married and my daughter married. From funeral potatoes to wedding cake and punch, the church was the place that filled our stomach's and our souls. It was the church where we grieved for our grandparents and parents passing. That building held alot of special memories for the circle girls. All the rules we followed and even some we rules we broke. They all come flooding back with the opening of the door.
Growing up in the late 60's in our neighborhood, it meant that you had a father who worked and a mother who didn't. You had brothers and sisters to play with all hours of the day and night and they stood up for you at school and threatened to beat up anyone who gave you any grief. As the "only child" in the group, I didn't have any of that, every Saturday played out the same. I woke up early and would go to each house in the circle until I found one of the girls who could play. Then I would sit back and listen and watch all the noise and chaos that made a family. All the while, I was wishing it was my family and my chaos.
I looked forward to the weekend and every Saturday started the same with me bolting out the door bouncing from one house to the next until someone was awake and could play. One morning I went to Shauna's home at 7am sharp and her father Morris came to the door in his pajamas and rubbing the sleep from his tired eyes, he kindly let me know I was there too early and Shauna would come find me on Saturdays from now on.
Shauna's family had adopted my Grandma Violet as their own. Therefore we were always invited for Sunday dinner and every Holiday was spent sharing the day with the Haderlie family. I remember Morris playing. Playing music, playing Santa Clause and playing with all the children, even me, as if I were his own and as if it was the funnest and most important thing in the world to be doing.
I was the first of the girls to loose a parent. As time has gone by, I have watched as all of the circle girls, their parents and families have aged and endured hardships. Even though I now know that none of the families were perfect, they all still mean the world to me and I can't imagine having had a life without all of their influence. Shauna's father baptised me, Joni's father performed my first marriage at our church and Carrie's father blessed my oldest daughter Chalyce when she was a baby.
Yesterday I joined my friends in attending one of their father's funeral. The Orem 5th ward chapel was filled with beautiful flowers and the halls were lined with so many people that loved Brother Haderlie. Morris Haderlie was an amazing man. He knew how to love and he knew how to laugh. He shared his kind heart with everyone who was lucky enough to know him. I left his funeral wanting to be a better person. I left wanting to be the kind of parent that he was to his children. I also left feeling gratitude for being able to be a part of my circle of friends. They may not be my blood relatives but they are part of me just as much as if we were born sisters. The girls from the circle are all grown up now, some of us have grandkids of our own. I still love you all and need you in my life as much now as I did way back then.
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