It all started in Colonia Juàrez, Mexico. There my grandfather Joseph Charles Bentley was Bishop and husband of three wives, beginning in the 1890s. My mother was the second oldest child of the first wife, Maggie Ivins Bentley. The first daughter was Ellice and was a very obedient and dutiful daughter. My mother was hyperactive and constantly on the go with much mischief along the way. Some faithful people in the ward wondered how such a nice Bishop and his wife could have such different children in their family. “Ellice was an angel, they said and Rita was a regular devil.” So that’s the beginning of the story.

Both Rita and Ellice ended up in Alberta, Canada. Both had large families. Rita smoothed out with the pressures and vicissitudes of life, rearing & birthing six children in Canada and two in California.

Due to unpaid bills, my father left Canada in the middle of a raging snow storm and joined his father and brothers in road grading and construction in the Southwest of the U.S.A.

Five years later Roy Skousen went back to Canada and paid all his creditors in full.

The family settled in San Bernardino, California, and lived in a beautiful home at 1409 North Waterman. Roy and Rita decided to keep their family in one home and address while Roy worked in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas in road construction It was a great sacrifice but paid great dividends for the children going to school without moving every time Father would get a new job.

Mother and Father were devoted to the Church and sent all six of their sons on missions. They had many trials and tribulations but remained true and faithful to their Heavenly Father.