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FORGET ME NOT:   AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF  
BETTY BURTON STOHL

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  Betty and Clark with their growing family, 1983.
    Click photo for large image 

With falls, surgeries, aches, and pains that most of our generation are suffering along with the rest of us, I want to tell my six children how very dear and caring, helpful, and loving they are, and how proud we are of them and their spouses, who we could not love any more than we do.

We have celebrated our 61st wedding anniversary this year on February 13th, 2001, never thinking we would see the next millennium. Our marriage for over six decades has been as pleasant and loving as any two people could have. Clark has been the kindest, most loving, and fun person with whom anyone could live. One of the reasons our children have turned out so well is because their dad paid so much attention to them when they were small, taking them on little junkets one at a time, buying Dots and other treats, giving them their baths, and having nightly question and answer sessions around our dining room table at dinner concerning geography, Church, and the game of twenty questions. They had loved his Banana the Cow stories when they were small.

At the present time our family numbers six children, their six spouses, thirty-two grandchildren with their twenty-one spouses, and thirty-six great-grandchildren, making a total of one hundred who grandpa entertained at his 90th birthday party on October 1, 2001, which he planned and hosted (His actual birth date being September 30th). We hope to continue to grow in size, love of family and our Heavenly Father, in righteousness and charity toward all.

  Betty and Clark with their children and spouses, 1993. 
    Click photo for large image.

My Personal Philosophy: In all our endeavors, the light of the gospel, the light at the end of the tunnel, must guide our lives toward our goals. Some of us desire to gain an education because of our early training and the influence of our home lives. Some take one course, some another. Some can succeed in ways that may be disastrous for others. We learn, in retrospect, that it is living the gospel in all we undertake that we find the satisfaction we have always been seeking. I learned this when I went away to school at New York University at a time of financial depression—the 1930’s. Because of hardships, achieving my desired goals in the field of advertising (which I had always loved) was extremely difficult. However, I later found as an advertising executive in a department store that the application of principles I learned in my youth was essential in achieving success in my work.

In my case learning patience, hard work, and financial sacrifice not only helped me earn a living but also helped as I began a second career as a wife and mother. All this, plus a constant prayerful heart, made it possible, when I became a mother of one son and six daughters, to structure my time and accomplish all my desires. The need to nurture, teach, and guide a growing family then superseded my desire for a career in business and turned me toward the greater career of caring for the Lord’s spirits He had so wonderfully entrusted to my care. The rewards of these years are now realized as I see my children perpetuating the teachings of my parents and blessing their children’s lives as mine was blessed. What a privilege it is to see the result of years of labor materialized in fine, active, God loving Latter-day Saint men and women. My greatest desire throughout my life has been to be an example to my children as my parent were to me.

How does one know what one is preparing for in life? There is only one way. We must pray unceasingly, search, and learn that the Lord is extending His hand to us. But we must also reach up for it. Unless we reach out for Him, we won’t find Him. Of a surety, He is there when we need Him, and of a surety, He will bless us if we but ask.

Life is not without its sadness, adversities and tragedies. When our little two year old daughter, Jennis, because of a frightful accident, was taken from us I began to question if my prayers and devotion to the gospel were worthwhile. But the comforting

hand of the Lord once again strengthened me and encouraged me to follow in His steps. Likewise, when my husband was lingering near death for weeks, I again learned of the constancy of the Father’s wisdom and recognized that our problems are blessings given to strengthen us and enable us to achieve our most cherished desire, to become worthy of His love.

  Betty and Clark with their daughters and spouses, 1998. 
    Click photo for large image 

If our lives aren’t turning out as we expect, we must remember that if we are faithful the Lord will guide us in the paths we should follow. If we are righteous, our lives are expanded to limitless ends. As President Hugh B. Brown once put it, "We are not endeavoring to get ahead of others, but to surpass ourselves."

Now, even in my later years, I find the same gospel principles and spiritual needs still exist. I am still growing and understanding what we may accomplish with the help of the Holy Ghost. We must fight against procrastination and discouragement, the most frequently used tools of Satan. Also, we must find the peace of mind that comes through the principle of repentance. We all make mistakes, but that doesn’t mean life is over. We can repent, not only from sin to righteousness, but from a good way of life to a better way of life. We have reached the time of life called fulfillment and say with the poet Browning:

"Grow old along with me,
The best of life is yet to be,
The last for which the first is given."

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