The Whys and Wherefores

In September, when Kent's brother John died, I contacted my dear friends Agnes and Jean-Marc Cara to let them know.  In 1976, John was a missionary in the Switzerland Geneva Mission, the same mission I served in.  While there, he taught and baptized Jean-Marc and his then wife (they later divorced).  More than twenty years later, while I was on my mission, I taught and was the missionary at Agnes' baptism.  At the end of my mission, when my parents came to pick me up, I also was able to escort Agnes through the temple for the first time.  Agnes was introduced by Jean-Marc to the Church, and a couple years after her baptism, Jean-Marc and Agnes were married.  In fact, they were married the month after Kent and I, and as part of their honeymoon to the US, they came and stayed with us in Albany.  We discovered the connection between Kent's brother and Jean-Marc when I sent Agnes a wedding announcement and Jean-Marc recognized the name Barrus.  Not only did the Caras visit us during their honeymoon, they also visited with John and AnnaLeesa, reconnecting after twenty years.

For several years, Agnes came to stay with us in the spring.  She would come in late March, go to General Conference, and just be with us.  Those were wonderful visits, and I was always so happy to have her with us, to be together, and to be uplifted by her example of faithful dedication.  Agnes sacrificed a great deal when she joined the Church, but she has remained firm in her faith and devotion.  Several years ago, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and while the treatments were successful, she has suffered from many debilitating side effects.  Four years after her initial diagnosis, she still has residual pain.  When I spoke to her following John's death, she was not well and I worried.  I told Kent I would be very depressed if Agnes died and I hadn't seen her again in this life.  I do realize that happens, especially when people live on different continents, but that thought tore at my heart.  Kent asked if we needed to send me to France for a week to be with her, and I said maybe.

In December, near Christmas, I got an email invitation from another friend from my mission.  Andree Morel is a member who lives just outside of Geneva in a French suburb called Annemasse.  She has a timeshare in a resort chain and every spring, she goes to southern Spain to enjoy the sun.  She came to visit us in 1998, and in 2000 she invited us to Spain to stay with her.  Kent and I went with my mom and sister.  We had a marvelous time.  She invited us to join her again this spring, with the children, and after some thoughtful consideration, Kent said, "Let's go.  Why not?"

Quite frankly, I was stunned.  Kent does not like to travel, he has been very hesitant about dragging our kids off somewhere and interrupting the routine of their lives, and generally, European travel is not cheap.  But Kent was profoundly affected by his brother's death, and reminded that life is fleeting, we never know when our time here will be at an end, and we shouldn't put off for another day things that are important.  And so with Andree's generous offer to stay at the resort, two airplane tickets covered by frequent flier miles, and the opportunity to see Agnes as well as Andree in one trip, we decided to do it.  There was also the perk of being able to get all the way to Spain with only one lay-over.  There is a Delta direct flight from Salt Lake to Paris, and then a Paris-Malaga flight, making travel with the children less complicated and perhaps a bit less exhausting than if we had several stops and lots of waiting in airport time.  So we accepted Andree's offer, I wrote to Agnes telling her we were coming, and off we went on a grand, but not overly complicated, European vacation.