Marshall &Kay Family Histories
B. VAUGHN MARSHALL
1987 - 1989
SETTLING IN
Vaughn and I were both very tired. Vaughn had, had the heaviest part of the moving burden. The rental house we were living in had wall-to-wall furniture, people and animals. It was hard to find a private place anywhere. We both felt pressured to find a home to buy as fast as we could. It took longer than we thought it would, but when we found the right home we knew that we had been blest again. It was such a perfect place to live. We found it just before our fourth daughter’s wedding but couldn’t move in until November. Once again Vaughn was a witness as his fourth daughter was married to her husband, in the Seattle Temple in October of 1997. Many people, family and friends from California, came up for the wedding. Vaughn began to feel like he was living at the airport. Our daughter and her new husband moved to New York where his dad had a job for him. Then came the job of settling into our new home. Our fifth daughter was so lonesome. Her last sister had left and all her friends were in California. We felt so sad for her. She became active in our new ward and got a job at the Stillaguamish Health Club and took classes at college. She was trying hard to adjust. One of her friends from our old ward was having problems with her family and needed a place to live. She hadn’t finished high school and wanted to finish up here and stay with our daughter. We said yes and that helped her a little. She tried hard to make it work but as soon as she had saved enough money to buy a car she decided to go back to California and work. By that time her friend, had graduated and gone back to be with her mom. In the meantime Vaughn was working so hard on our new home and yard. The previous owner had taken out many trees and left the property looking pretty barren. Vaughn landscaped a whole new yard. He planted lots of shrubs, trees, berries and flowers. It was a lot of work but resulted in a beautiful place. Then he built shelves all across the back of the garage and in the well house. It was so good to have some shelves to store things.
WORKING IN THE TEMPLE
AND OUR DAUGHTER GOING ON A MISSION
We were very excited to be asked to do volunteer work in the Temple in 1988 or as we say in the church, we were "called" to help, to serve. We worked one evening a week. We did that until late in 1990. It had become very difficult to leave Vaughn’s mother. Because of her age, it disturbed her a lot when we were gone. We had someone stay with her but she became very uncomfortable with our absence anyway. By March of that year (1989) she took a turn staying with Elaine for a while. Just after she left our fourth daughter and her new husband arrived from New York (the job hadn’t worked out), and stayed with us while they found jobs and a place to rent. That same March of 1989, our third daughter was released from her mission and we made plans to go to Ecuador to bring her back. Vaughn had carefully planned the cost of the trip and thought it might be our only opportunity to take a trip out of the country together. As it turned out, it was. This occurred before our fifth daughter left for California, so she was invited to come with us.
It was a really interesting experience; some of it good, some of it stressful. The end result was the appreciation we felt for what our daughter did and was willing to do for the people in Ecuador. Also the good feelings we had for these kind people who had so little in worldly goods but were willing to give much. Last of all, we became much more aware of how many blessings we have in this country. Vaughn was most impressed with our daughters command of the Spanish language and her ability to deal with the taxi drivers (and others). The taxi drivers left an “impression” with him also; they’re driving was just a little crazy. He enjoyed seeing the ancient ruins very much. The trip to the ruins was a challenge all the way there and all the way back in a taxi. We had a flat tire first and later got stuck in the mud. The driver had to finally turn around and find another route. That made us late and we came back in the dark on very bad roads. Vaughn enjoyed meeting our daughter’s companions and the people she taught. He remembered her especially standing in a circle visiting with her companions on a street corner in Quito – this tall blond girl surrounded by shorter dark haired young men and women all laughing and conversing in Spanish. He especially enjoyed the Amazon boat and jungle trip we went on there. He said it was so interesting. The excursions we made from the boat into different areas of the jungle each day were so different from what he’d seen before. He was always interested in many different types of plants and animals, even those lines of big ants that were carrying leaves to build with were interesting to him. And I think he really enjoyed our day at the Otovalan Indian Market. That particular tribe of Indians were so interesting. Later, our daughter introduced us to a missionary sister who was an Otovalan Indian. She was a lovely girl.
THE GIRLS LEAVE
Shortly after we returned home our third daughter flew to Utah to attend college and our youngest daughter left for California. The car our youngest daughter had bought was in very bad condition. Vaughn had tried to talk her out of buying it but her heart was set on that particular car. He didn’t feel safe having her drive it all the way to California alone so he suggested we follow her and make sure she arrived safely. While our third daughter was in Utah she met her husband to be. That following summer she went to stay with our youngest daughter in California to find work and earn some money before returning to school. Her future husband became very lonesome for her and went to see her and proposed. They planned their marriage for school break time in December. That turned out to be an eventful time because a young man, (who was to become our youngest daughters husband), came up for the wedding and proposed to her at that time. I remember Vaughn being impressed that this young man asked him for his youngest daughter’s hand first. So again, Vaughn was witness in the Seattle Temple as our third daughter and her husband were sealed in December of 1990. Then in May of 1991 he was witness in the Oakland Temple as our youngest daughter and her new husband were married.
ROCKS AND PAIN
The years we had been living in Washington were good in many ways. Vaughn enjoyed not having to go into work every day. He enjoyed working in the yard very much, even though the work was physically hard. Sometimes he would pull himself away from all the work around the property and we would go “exploring”. Vaughn enjoyed just driving up and around the old timber trails (dirt roads), to see where they would go. He enjoyed looking for outcroppings where he could find some interesting rocks to collect. Even though he was a geologist he hadn’t had a lot of opportunities to explore for rocks up to that time. The area of Washington where we lived seemed to lend itself to that adventure. In the following years he managed to accumulate a really nice collection of rocks and gemstones. He invested in some equipment and learned to cut and polish stones. He also took a silversmith class. He did some beautiful work. He set many of the stones he made and gave them away as gifts. He introduced me to the world of “rock and gemstone” shows and we enjoyed going to as many shows in our area as we could. When we traveled to see our children Vaughn would always make it a point to go to the rock shops near them or find an area to explore where he could look for another interesting rock. He would often treat his grandchildren to a special rock. When we traveled by car Vaughn would point out all the interesting geological features of the area we were traveling through. He had numerous topographical maps – in fact he had maps of all descriptions. In those early years he also enjoyed our visits with our son, his wife and their boys. They would go shooting or make trips to Anacortes or Deception Pass or someplace like that. In the later years he was often too tired to enjoy those trips.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints in Arlington, WA
“ARLINGTON WARD”
The new ward we moved into was not very large and there were many inactive families. There were also many needy members. Vaughn was often asked to help in one way or another. Much of the help involved cutting and splitting wood or helping to repair a roof or part of a house or working in someone’s yard. I worried about his working so hard. I think it was late 1989 that we had a scary experience involving his health.
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