Hi ya'll,

This is Grandma Andrus' blog she wanted me to send because her computer is crashing!

But she really wanted me to send it to everyone! Now, she says I was the one who really wanted it to be posted...make up your own mind!!! This is the introduction she had to write to become a member of the Orem Woman' s Club, and she doesn't even live in Orem! But, the new president, who has been Mom's freind since High School said she would not be the president if Grandma didn't join. Talk about pressure!

I would like to introduce myself with a small prose my husband wrote before his death in 1993.

It’s funny how each fashion fades
With each new coming age;
What we once wore to Masquerades
Is now the stylish rage

These few lines take many in the Orem Women’s Club from where we were to where we are today. In other words we grew up believing in ironed clothes, clean morals, tidy homes and Halloween, and of course manners were expected of everyone.
My name is Rhea Hardy Andrus. I was born in Provo, Utah to Leoma and Frank Hardy. Dad was ill with Multiple Sclerosis, and could not continue his work as an Optician. He passed away when I was eight. Our family consisted of one older Brother. Frank Jr. and one older Sister, Audrey Biesinger. We also have a younger sister, Ruth Hardy Yates. Ruth is only 15 minutes younger than me, allowing me the blessing of never having to be alone to face reprimands or responsibility for the mischief two can create. One of our earliest mishaps was caused not by my twin and me, but because of us; when our big sister Audrey jealously shaved our hair off when she thought hers was uglier than ours. She swore us to secrecy making our parents believe their two younger children had a very peculiar disease. It was she that Dad spanked when Mom found the hair hidden under the claw legged bathtub.
Life moved quickly on, mother supported her family doing factory work and never complained at her difficult life. Certainly a lot of the mechanics of everyday living and love went on in our home. Frank and Audrey both married during World War II. At 16 years of age my twin married, ending our dependent twin connection. She was happy; but, during the next nine years my aunts called me an “Old Maid.” That didn’t do my self image much good. Home life consisted of just Mom and me.
Even though I entered high school as an “Old Maid”, those years were some of the happiest in my life. Marjorie Winward (now a member of Orem Women’s club) and I first met on the way home from West High School, on a street car. We found out we lived across the street from each other and an eternal friendship was formed. It was Margie’s and Audrey’s determination, (forced), that I join your club. I think your group is a remarkable service organization, and love the guest performers that entertain you. My only hesitancy at becoming a member stems from the idea of writing this required life sketch. That one thought has so far kept me from becoming a member. I’ve attended enough of your programs to admire the quality of women in your group and their wonderful accomplishments.
I served an LDS mission at 21, and then waited until 25 before I caught the Apple of my eye. I met Douglas Andrus on a brother arranged blind date, the day before Doug went into the navy. We wrote, and after the flow of letters for one year, he had a 10 day leave from the military and took me to the Salt Lake Temple and married me.
Life was not to be trial free from then on and many major events would bring difficult times. Countering that were the innumerable blessings that filled and continues to enhance my life. Doug and I had 6 children, 34 grandchildren, and numbers 19, 20, and 21 great-grandchildren are on the way. Hopefully that will increase since I still have 22 unmarried grandchildren. I have not lived outside the United States; but I have moved my family from sea to shining sea every time my husband’s job required it. What I found in the many moves was the wonderfulness of ordinary lives’ and the remarkable people who live to their potential every where.
Each day there is something to laugh at, a little to cry about and always much to be thankful for. My daughter De Lane says,”If you will laugh at something in two weeks, why wait!” Here’s a list of things that have kept us laughing for years!

Regrets— to my depressed neighbor whose one joy came from a tiny baby bird she’d rescued —until, I sat on the bird and squash it flat, during a visit to comfort her!

Bad example— The cop, who ticked me for speeding on streets I had not traveled on and the judge who put me in jail for it!

Loosing it— When I thought my baby had shredded her tongue, only to find it was a piece of hot dog, from our previous night’s meal.

Kidnapped— Late at night by a group of huge Hawaiian men, who grabbed me when they thought I really needed saving, and drove me home.

Learning to drive— “I didn’t intend for the car to end up on the sidewalk and the meter to get ruined.”

Cooking— sooooo a recipe for 2500 sailors doesn’t compute down very well to dinner for four.

Preserving— “Susan, I don’t think we can lift this 300 year old casket out of the dipsy dumpster. I don’t care if it is for Relief Society! What if there’s a dead man inside?”

My sisters— who got me a birth certificate when my twin testified “under oath” she was present at my birth and they accepted her as a viable witness.

Sorry— “about the liniment I used in the icing instead of vanilla. The bottles did look the same”.

Repentance—When I broke a girls foot with a rock, I only meant to hurt it.

Lawlessness— Bishop to Sister Andrus: “I know you are just trying to help catch a crook; but, it’s not safe to follow someone who has threatened another’s life.”

Thankful—for my perfect family I love, despite some of their wisdom-less decisions. My family now informs me at 80, it’s their wisdom I need.

Sneaking— around so my thrifty husband would not see me dispose of the freezer burned meat—only to find he had been doing the same thing!

Listening—when the spirit said, “Run as fast as you can, don’t let that evil man catch you.”

Embarrassing— running out of gas in a car filled with kidnapped night gowned Relief Society sisters in the Barstow desert’s early morning hours; while driving them to a surprise thank-you breakfast from the presidency.

I now ask if you still want me to join your organization, and have you ever turned an applicant down?

Rhea Andrus