2000—Temple Dedication

So we came to the dedication. I say, “we,” but I was the sole representative of our family. Lots of old friends gathered from all over for the occasion. I regretted then and regret now that Valerie was away on her errand of mercy. Service is all well and good and proper and hard to escape, when new grandchildren are involved, but I wish she could have seen President Hinckley’s excitement as he dedicated in the year 2000 the 100th currently-functioning Temple, the first one in New England, the land of his own forebears. You’d never have guessed that he was then in his nineties.

His remarks went a bit longer on this occasion than on others of the same sort: he took the opportunity to expand on the pioneering role of our shared Mayflower Pilgrim ancestor, Stephen Hopkins. A topic of very great interest to me, of course.