My mom loves to tell the story of when she was set apart on Halloween night in a mortuary to do work for the dead. Well, I have my own version of that story.
When we first moved to Sandy, Utah (the second time) our stake was newly made and our Stake Center was still in the process of being built. We had to go to church a few miles south in Draper in an older, smaller building so we were all excited about the idea of a new church!
Because we were borrowing a few buildings the stake offices needed to be somewhere else. A new cemetery with a mortuary on the grounds had opened up at about 98th East on State Street and they had a few extra rooms that they allowed the stake to use and set up as offices. It would only be for a few months because the stake center was going up fast. The new building would be around the corner and up the hill so the mortuary was in the stake boundaries.
(I know, boring but I got to tell the back story)
At the time we were a bunch of young kids who really were angels in disguise.
I am talking deep, deep under cover, people!
My parents were called to the Stake offices to meet with the Stake President. They wanted my mom to start working in the name extraction program. Back then it was kind of like name indexing but you had to sit in front of microfilm and get the names that way. It was a great calling for her but how she came about being set apart was weird!
Halloween night was the only night they could do it. Our trick or treating was cut short (which we were already unhappy about) and we piled into the car with what candy we had and went to the cemetery. Our little imaginations were not on our side that night as we drove inside the dark driveway and onto the cemetery grounds, knowing on either side were graves of people who were dead! And tonight was the night ghosts and goblins were allowed to come out and wreak havoc.
Did I mention we were young and very imaginative?
Once we got into the building my parents went in to talk to the Stake President. We were left alone. So we had to explore, of course. Excuses were made about bathrooms and water and we ( a select few. Okay, me and Jeff) went exploring. We found the room where all of the caskets were being showcased. They were so creepy in the dark! We worked our way downstairs to the big steel double doors. We knew there were dead bodies behind it and dared each other to touch the door. We did and that scared us straight back to the offices, where we remained like the good little children we were until it was time to leave.
I don't like scary movies. I am not a fan of scary Halloween although I don't mind cute Halloween, but I will never go into a cemetery on Halloween night ever again! And you will not catch me inside a mortuary either, unless I have no choice.
(have to throw that last part in just in case, lol)
Happy Halloween!
Tune in next Halloween when we talk about the creepy place by the railroad tracks that makes the concrete boxes for the cemeteries!
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