There is a couple named Leroy & Shirley Welch. Time has slipped by and the solid middle class, middle age couple I once knew have turned seventy. Their hair has greyed, his joints hurt, his knees are shot, her back is going and her hearing is gone.
Good deeds they have done - too numerous to mention. Good deeds they continue to do, and I am the recipient of some of those because there are things I can not do myself, things my men folk have chosen to fore go and Leroy has quietly stepped in to take care of them instead.
Every Wednesday, when these sweet people go to the temple, he takes the names of my grandfathers, my great grandfathers, their fathers, and their male children and all the in-laws that I have found and made temple ready...and every Sunday she faithfully returns two completed blue cards to me.
Many people take the names of people they do not know through the temple. Few have the privilege to do the work for their own, immediate, family. While I can do my female relatives, I can not, of course, do the men. Leroy, two by two, is doing that for me.
One day, I hope to be present, when these relatives come to greet and honor Brother Welch for the service he has rendered. He deserves to be acknowledged for every time he has stood up and sat down on creaking knees, for every moment he has remained attentive so they can understand the ordinances that are being performed for them, and for the hours that have been spent by him in their service. What he does here, today, literally lasts for eternity.
And I will love him forever for that.
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