My Friend Trudi
Dear Trudi,
What a wonderful celebration of life you are experiencing on your special day. My same day birthday was also a surprise party at Maddox, almost seven years ago.
Mike and I wish we were there with you right now. We are in Rexburg Idaho, at the Mike and Peggy Knowles family reunion, with all our children and 19 grandchildren.
My son Mike is the head-engineer of the new Rexburg Temple. He's been an engineer at the Bountiful Temple for the past three years. We are very proud of him and this is a special reunion for our family.
Trudi, you have been a great influence on my life!
First and foremost, you gave me the opportunity of meeting my eternal partner and the love of my life Michael, whom I love and adore. I wonder what both our lives would be like if you hadn't introduced us. Thank you for listening and obeying the still small voice when you were inspired several times in your kitchen to introduce us.
Secondly, I want to thank you for your help with my 15 year real estate career.
We met and became friends while living in Sunset, and stayed friends after I moved to Riverdale. One day you popped over and said, "guess what I'm doing?" All it took was five words, "I'm taking real estate classes" for me to say, "wait, I'll get my purse and go with you." I did, and the rest is history.
This was an important time of my life because I got my license one month before becoming divorced. I know you were inspired to come to my home that day. Heavenly Father knew I was going to need to support myself and my two daughters and grandson. You led me, guided me, and showed me the way. Thank you so much.
We had many fun excursions during the 70's. I don't know if your children know that we were surrounded by police, and told to put our hands on our heads! They didn't handcuff us, but did take us in for questioning. By the way kids, we were totally innocent!
How about the time we were shopping at the DI, and someone helped themselves to your purse. Gil had to leave work to rescue us, because the car key was in your purse.
Then there was the time we drove to Ephraim by way of Price Utah, and ended up in the mountains with deer hunters who when asked, "is this the road to Ephraim?" exclaimed, "no, and promptly picked up your little yellow Volkswagen, turned it around and sent us back the same direction we came from.
The next scene had me laughing so hard I found myself on the floor of your car. As we were headed down the dirt road we encountered a semi-truck going up the road. The driver asked, "is this the road to Ephraim?" While I was laughing I heard you say, "how the hell do I know I've been lost for the past two hours!" You didn't even tell him to turn around, and I bet those deer hunters couldn't pick that semi up and turn it around.
Then we got snowed in while skiing at Elk Meadows in Beaver. That was quite a day. A semi had turned over on the icy I-15 and all traffic both south bound and north bound were diverted into Beaver. Semi's were literally parked for miles up the road.
I asked a waitress where the old road was and she said that it was under the freeway. I rephrased my question and said I want to know how you get to Delta Utah, on one of the old roads. "She finally understood and gave us directions. We were home long before the other skiers in our party, who refused to follow us.
Then there was the time we were in a ski race at Snow Basin for the Ogden Board of Realtors. We skied over to take a look at the run we would be racing on, thought it looked easy, and said we wanted to be numbers one and two, because we didn't want to ski before anyone messed up the run. We complacently went our way and enjoyed ourselves skiing. After too much time had passed we noticed there were people racing. Our worst fears were realized and there was nothing left but deep ruts to ski in. Neither of us won any race that day. We were lucky we made it down in one piece.
I have lots of stories but want to tell you how sorry we are for the loss of your dear father, and how much Mike and I love spending time with your sweet mother.
Your Friends always, with all our love, Peggy and Mike
