Unique man from Kentucky

 It is the last night before we headed out to Africa. I seem to have run through all the phases of anxiety. Running around getting things done, finding projects to do before finishing the first, and sitting doing nothing. Flight, hide, and freeze - all in one day. If I hadn't looked at my behavior I wouldn't have known I felt any anxiety as I feel mentally I am ready to go.

So, I am contemplating my blessings and thought about Isla (my youngest granddaughter) who was born last June. I traveled out in late July to spend a week with Julia. By the time I got there, the decision has been made for them to move to California to live with us because Michael got a job with Tesla and they would be living with us. At that point Jeffrey and I were just putting together our mission papers so we did have an ulterior motive for wanting them to stay. My stay was planned for two weeks because of the move.

Michael and Julia have been married for three years, have two children, and have lived in four different places. They have lived at BYU in Provo (for school), Campbellsville and Bradfordsville in Kentucky (for an internship and job), and now in Concord, California.

It was in Bradfordsville that they met Stephen Riley. He was extremely helpful when they first moved in and gave them all kinds of help, advice and friendship (as much as could happen in a COVID world). Michael worked with him as a counselor. I met him when Julia and I were looking at an apartment full of stuff knowing we were going to get on an airplane in two weeks. 

Stephen Riley

I was a bit in a conundrum because I was not familiar with Bradfordsville nor the people and knew we needed a donation drop-off, a dump, and the means to haul it all.  Stephen Riley rides to the rescue. 

He came over and assessed the amount of things that needed to be given away to good homes, what needed to be thrown out and what may be useful to someone else. He showed up with bags and plastic bins for all the donations i.e. dishes, pots, pans, food stuffs that were unopened, fans, beds, accessories, clothes, baby items etc.. and etc.

Bags and bins to put donations of serviceable items in

Brother Riley was disabled in an accident and wanted things put in the boxes and bins so he could carry them. It was so easy to put all the clothes in one bag, baby items in another, and fill the bins with cans in one, pots, pans, silverware, knives in another, and much more, then he brought a trailer to haul  everything to different locations. He had arranged with a Relief Society president to take some of the donations, arranged for the beds to be given to another family, and another place for  the rest of the donations and brought bags and bags of junk on a dump run.  I do not believe in all 10 moves I have made in my life that I have ever seen, heard of, or actually met a more helpful, cheerful, organized man who made life so easy.

His trailer had both shelves and open space for about everything, he pulled it with a pick-up truck that he threw the bags of junk in to take to the dump.

Because of Brother Riley's expert help, Julia and I were able to leave in one week instead of half a month. Even though Isla was only a month old and both girls needed lots of care, we were able to organize (that was Julia's part) and clean (that was my part) and get moved (that was Brother Riley all the way) and get to the airport on time. 

Brother Riley's good deeds were not unpunished. I decided to open the back door to haul out the bins to the parking lot in the back by the kitchen. That door hadn't been opened since Julia and Michael had moved in. Unknown to me, I'd knocked a hornet's nest at the top of the doorway with my first load out to Brother Riley's truck. He told me, "Quick shut the door, get back inside!" Brother Riley got stung and also rained on while trying to get rid of the hornets so they wouldn't come into the apartment.

The black hornets were about two or two and a half inches long. Mad and wet after having their nest knocked about.

If you are ever visiting Bradfordsville in Kentucky, tell Stephen Riley that I am grateful and still thinking about him.