It was a really hard day for me, but the memorial was lovely.
Grandma was a truly lovely soul.

Janet and mom did a wonderful job with the table displays.

There was a family waiting area in Grandma’s ward’s Relief Society Room. 

The family began to gather. 

The boys of my family.

Then Mirah was having a hard time staying calm enough. 

Maryn joined the gang. 

All of the Pallbearers wore white carnations. 

Mom and Dad and Mirah. 

LOTS of other family members, friends, and loved ones were there.

Her bishop spoke as we closed the casket for the last time. Dad said the prayer, and we walked out to the chapel. They put the rainbow blanket across the casket. As we walked down the hall I noticed Brandon crying. He said, “That was just mean.”

Every life is a story. I’d like to tell you the story of my mother’s life.  

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Denice Murphy.  She had curly blonde hair and blue eyes.  Her mother Winona and father Keith loved her very much.  She lived in McGill, Nevada where her father worked in a foundry at the Kennecott Copper Company.  She enjoyed spending summers swimming in the local swimming hole and watching her brother Alan play baseball.  She learned to sew, embroider, and crochet under her mother’s tutalage.   She went to school at McGill Grade School and continued on at White Pine County High School where she played the Baritone in the band.  It was in high school that she met her sweetheart, John Barainca.  There they began their lifelong love affair.  

They were married in 1954 and started their life together in McGill, Nevada.  Soon they were blessed with three beautiful girls, Wendy, Jacqui, and Janet.  John worked construction and Denice worked part time at the McGill post office.  Life was good.  John joined the church and they were sealed in the St. George temple in January 1961. 

John’s work required that the family move frequently, or that John was often gone.   But John wanted to be able to better his family’s life, so he enrolled in Brigham Young University and the family moved to Utah.  In order to accomplish this, Denice went to work to help support her family.  She worked at the university Audio/Visual department.  One of the perks of this job was being able to bring home movie projectors and entertaining, educational movies of all kinds.  This was a time before videos so hers was a popular house with all the neighbor children.  Another perk was being able to take classes at the university free.  By taking a few classes each semester she persevered and after 18 years she completed her bachelor’s degree.  Small steps lead to great things.  John graduated and started teaching science at Brighton High School.  John and Denice moved to Salt Lake, and she transferred to the BYU Salt Lake Center, where she was a resource specialist for the College of Nursing.  During this time she continued her education and obtained a Masters degree in Information and Library Science. 

The university sent her back to Provo, where she worked as a resource specialist for the College of Engineering.  She transferred from this department to  the BYU Library in the family history department.   Family history became her passion. In 2002, she retired from full time work, but continued working on family history.   She became an extraction specialist for the church. 

In the meantime, her darling girls grew up, persued education, and married in the temple.  Grandchildren came fast and furious! 15 all together.  Even though many of them lived far away she always remembered them with birthday and Christmas gifts.  In fact, when they were four, she made each and everyone of them a “rainbow quilt” which they carried everywhere.  Floors and tents during family sleepovers were a rainbow of many colors.  These quilts saw many events.  Even as adults her grandchildren value these treasures of their grandmother’s love and sacrifice.  One quilt even made it to a two year mission to Guatemala.  

Denice served in many church callings in her lifetime.  When her children were young, she was a Primary president, and then a counselor in the BYU 6th Stake Relief Society Presidency.  She held many teaching positions, including teaching the Sunbeams in the Falcon Park Ward for many years. She was also privileged to work as an ordinance worker in the Jordan River temple.  

Denice supported John in all his endeavors, from Skylab to Mission to Mars.  She graded papers, kept grades, books, and shared in his enthusiasm for his many extracurricular activities.  They traveled far and wide together.  They went to Germany, Spain, France, Switzerland, Alaska; they even made it to the Arctic Circle.  She was by his side in Florida to watch two Space shuttle launches.  One of these carried a payload from John’s Brighton High School Aerospace class.  

Denice was a lover of learning.  She was interested in everything.  Family trips were always a learning experience.  She would stop at all the historical markers.  If there was a monument on the side of the road in the middle of the desert she would stop and read the historical event recorded there.  It became a family joke.  She and Janet shared and read many books together. Reading was a passion with her.  She was learning up until the day she left mortality.  One of her last nights was spent watching a program about a lost painting of Leonardo Di Vinci.

As her grandchildren grew, 7 of them served missions.   Many of them gravitated to Utah to go to college or work.  Her basement became a home away from home.  Her arms were always open, welcoming each and every person who came up her steps.  Her influence in all of their lives was larger than life.  Her caring, her unconditional love, her wisdom, her service sustained her family through their personal life challenges.  When called upon by her family for help, Denice was always there with a compassionate word and loving kindness.  No one was ever turned away.  It was not in her nature to say no. 

The last few years of her life were spent coping with health issues and physical challenges.  There were many visits to hospitals and care facilities.  During all of these stays, those who assisted her observed that unlike many of the patients, Denice was continually surrounded by loved ones.  The evidence of a life well lived was the desire of others to return the love Denice shared with them. Love returns love. 

A friend fo grandpa’s from his Mars work. 

The funeral procession began.