Christmas Angel

In 1992, I was called to be the Relief Society president in our ward at church. (Relief Society is a women's organization and as a president, I was responsible for the spiritual and temporal well-being of over 200 women). I was young, inexperienced, and overwhelmed. One of my counselors was Ardella Oldham, a woman 30+ years my senior. Ardella was a wonderful counselor because she had been a Relief Society president herself years earlier. She was experienced, wise, and had a calming effect on me. As we served together, she also became a dear friend (another reminder that friendship has no age limits).

Ardella and I went skiing together on several occasions. I think she was the one who finally got me off the bunny slopes (although I'd never try some of the runs she did). She was an example of a woman who lived life to its fullest. She was constantly taking classes at the community college just because she wanted to learn something new.

One Christmas, Ardella gave me this...a beautiful stained glass angel that she had made:

Evidently when she moved in to her house, she had a window that she thought would make a lovely stained glass window. She took a class, learned how to do stained glass, and put it up. As a by-product, she learned to make these angels. Over the years, she began selling them in a local shop. I feel privileged to have one of them and every year when I pull out my Christmas decorations, I think of Ardella and the years we served together and the friendship that developed as a result of that service.

I recently learned that Ardella passed away a few weeks ago. My thoughts have been of her several times in recent weeks. Goodbye dear friend.