Helena Danielsen Belnap (12 Oct 1908 - 8 Jun 2011)

I'd like to take a moment to reflect with you on the life of my grand aunt (my maternal grandmother's sister)Helena Danielsen Belnap, who died peacefully in her sleep at her home in DeKalb, Illinois early this morning at age 102.  Just saying that tells you something of her blessed life well lived.

She really was healthy and still able to travel to see family until the past couple months. I don't know how many 102 year olds they regularly see on Chicago to Salt Lake flights, but she would do it at least once or twice a year right to the end. For that matter, she was an ordinance worker in the Chicago temple (70 miles from her home) until a knee injury at age 95 finally forced her to stop making the icy trip regularly in the winter months.

You've probably heard me say that much before. But when my second cousin Hank Peterson reminded me today of what Helena and her husband Ralph meant to the establishment of the church in the Chicago exurbs 50-60 years ago, and how many of the people who were touched as a result will be at her funeral, it is worth some reflection. They served as missionaries, as district president, and other similar callings for many years. Most of the wards in the counties west of Chicago have their roots in mission branches they worked to organize all those years ago, and many people there still love and remember Helena and Ralph for what they did.
Hank's brother Mark, and Mark's wife Sharon have lived with Helena the past 4-5 years and helped care for her. Mark is meeting with their bishop today to work out funeral details, which are expected to be in her ward building, possibly as soon as this Saturday. She will be buried next to her husband in a Council Bluffs, Iowa cemetery and near her parents and siblings. She was the youngest child in her family and the last of her generation to pass. (In fact, most of the next generation, my mother's, has also passed).

Her viewing will be Wednesday, June 15 in a mortuary (sorry, I don't know which one yet), her funeral will be Thursday, June 16 in her local ward chapel, and the dedication of her grave in Iowa will be Saturday, June 18.

I will tell you more as I learn it.

I did a short walk with Terreeeblay ... http://terreeeblay.blogspot.com/2011/06/122.html

I liked this quote in the Sunday morning April 2011 general conference talk by President Uchtdorf that I read today,

"By becoming the answer to someone's prayer, we often find the answer to our own."