Grandpa Thomas' Veiwing on May 9th

As I stood in the line at the viewing I came to realize the wonderful influence that my dad had on several generations that lived in the area. It is somewhat difficult to explain.  Dad was a bishop for five years and a member of the Sandy Utah Hillcrest Stake Presidency for 17 years. Many of those he worked with during that time came through expressing their gratitude for my Dad and his quiet commitment and example. More than one expressed thanks for his teachings and object lessons that came out of the "Brown Paper Bag".

You can see me standing between two of my younger bothers, Kelly on my left and Lindsay on my right along with my youngest sister, Cindy, on Lindsay's right.  Melanie and Byron are just outside the picture on Kelly’s left.  Lindsay had a definite advantage over me because he lived in the same ward as my Dad and was in the Bishopric of the ward when Dad was in the Stake Presidency.  If we would have given this a bit of thought, we should have put him on my right because he would have helped reminded of the names for those faces I recognized or partially recognized but could not remember their names.