My wonderful parents

My father, John Byron Thompson was born in Ephraim, Utah on December 5, 1901. Mother, Clara Ida Bennion, was born in Vernal, Utah on August 21, 1910 and moved to Afton Wyoming when she was 11 or 12 years old.

Now how do you suppose two people that were separated by that many years in age and that much distance could meet, fall in love and get married. Remember this all took place in the early 1900's when both of their families lived in small towns and transportation was not as it is today. The automobile was a fairly new contraption and roads simply were not conducive to travel, to say nothing of the fact that neither family had money for such a thing. Horses and wagons were much more reliable.

It, of course, must have been one of those "meant to be" things as last Friday, June 4, 2010 would have been their 80th wedding anniversary.

My dad graduated from the University of Utah in the early 1920's and obtained a teaching position in Star Valley, Wyoming. I don't remember all of the details of his job, but when he got there the man who was to be principal of one of the schools left for some reason and my dad was made principal of one of the schools in the Valley. He "batched" with another guy that was also teaching there. Grandma Bennion, being the compassionate sort that she was, invited these two young men to come for Sunday dinner so they could have a good "home-cooked" meal. My mom was about 14 at the time and my dad always said that he knew the minute he saw her that she was the one for him. Grandma and grandpa were quite concerned as he was so much older that their daughter, but they liked him a lot and continued to have him for Sunday dinners. At one point in her schooling, I believe in high school, mom actually took some classes from dad. He would go home to Ephraim every summer to help his parents on the farm. He wrote mom some pretty passionate love letters, which I saw at one time, but haven't come across them recently in mom's things.

When mom graduated from high school, grandma and grandpa told her she had to wait to get married, as she was still too young. They were still concerned about her marrying someone so much older. Grandma told her that if she married that Byron Thompson, she would end up "tending an old man" someday. So it was that mom was 19 and dad was 28 on their wedding day.

They lived in Afton for the first year of their marriage and then dad was offered a teaching job in Price, Utah. At the time the offer came, dad was working with the forest service in the mountains and was unable to respond. They had discussed the possibility and so mom accepted for dad and they moved to Price. They lived in a couple of small apartments for a time and then bought the house at 401 North 3rd East, where they lived for the rest of their married life.

Three children were born to Byron and Clara. David Byron on May 23, 1933, John Theron on May 19, 1939 and Linda June on March 21, 1943.

One thing that I can say about my parents is that they were as one, especially in their parenting. If they ever differed on how to discipline or raise us, I never knew. They were together 100% and we knew it. That included their love for their children. Even when we made mistakes, they may have disciplined us strongly, but I always knew that their love was unconditional.

Dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1970, but had surgery and lived cancer free for several years. In 1983 he was complaining of his ribs hurting, like he had cracked a rib. It was found that the cancer had gone into his bones and mom took care of him with tenderness and love until his death on December 23, 1984. I'm sure she thought of her mother's words during that time, but she told me that she had never loved my dad more than she did during those last months of his life. Mom lived another 23 years after dad passed away and died on December 23, 2007 at the age of 97. Noone could tell me that it was a coincidence that it was exactly 23 years, almost to the very hour that they were apart. Also of note is that both of those days fell on Sunday, two days before Christmas. I know that they are together now and probably had a great celebration of their 80th anniversary! Never could a daughter ask for more loving, wonderful parents than these two were for me!