Kristy Ragsdale

There's already a blog dedicated to Kristy, but I will just post a few thoughts of my own. Some of you have met her, and I thought it would be appropriate to do a small tribute here. (Funeral info available at other blog: http://kristymemoryblog.blogspot.com/)

I first met Kristy at my bridal shower in Utah just before marrying George. She had just married George's nephew David about six weeks earlier. Kristy was the type of very open person who revealed a lot of detail. I remember some graphic advice from her about my wedding night. I won't repeat it here and gross you out. She meant well. And it was funny.

She was one of those lucky people who could sing well and look pretty without makeup. I related to her in that we both had served missions and received college degrees. And we were in-laws connected to the same big family of strong personalities in which there was always some kind of drama. (Yeah, no kidding.) We saw each other at just about every family event connected to George's big family. She and David were even in our home three months ago to help bless Jacob.

Kristy and I both had two sons, hers each one year ahead of my boys. She was very generous and insisted on loaning me a shload of maternity clothes when I was pregnant with Joseph. When I had my recent hospital stay, she immediately called to ask what DVDs I'd want to see and came over with a portable DVD player and sack of movies. I was pretty loopy on phenergan at the time, so we did not visit much, but she phoned me a week later to see how I was doing. She offered babysitting and cleaning services, and I think she was genuine in wanting to help me, even when she was going through her own troubles.

During this last phone conversation I had with Kristy, she joked about her approaching 30th birthday. Since it would be the end of her 'youth', her original idea was to have a funeral theme and everyone was to come in black with mascara dripping down their faces from tears. The terrible thing is, she was more correct than she knew at the time about how her 30th birthday would turn out.

(She had actually changed her mind later about the party and was instead thinking of a graduation theme, since she was optimistic about her life ahead.)

Although rumors and news reports will be coming out with more details about her marriage and the situation with her husband David, right now I just want to focus on the great things about Kristy and the need for her surviving sons to have as much help as possible in light of events. Everyone now looks back and thinks they should have done this or that to prevent what happened, but it's in the Lord's hands now and Kristy has already forgiven David for what he did, according to some spiritual experiences Kristy's mother told us about. And that's the kind of person she was anyway, quick to forgive and find the positive.

After this shocking event, after my own brush with death from heart trouble, I have that sense of the delicacy of life. If you are here now, you are here because Heavenly Father wants you to be. Maybe I should stop complaining about having to stick around and do things that make me tired, and just appreciate the relationships and experiences with which I'm blessed.