Grandma Booth by Kim Booth Christensen

"We never lived close enough to Grandma Booth for me to get to know her well. After we moved to Alabama our visits were more frequent and every visit made an impression on me. Many of the impressions were from the food that she prepared and served. Other impressions were from what she had in the house and how neatly she kept house. There were a lot of plants. Everything was in its place. I remember a set of Britannica Encyclopedias on the shelves in her secretary. According to some of my school mates, Britannica was the Cadillac edition of encyclopedias. I wondered why Grandma had such a nice set. She certainly didn't need them and I never saw her use them. She didn't have any children at home. She didn't teach school and I couldn't figure out what use they could possibly have to her. Years later I concluded t hat perhaps the set of encyclopedias wasn't there for her but she kept them for her grandchildren to use. We did use them on occasion. But even more importantly I think the encyclopedias sat on the shelf as a constant silent reminder to us that we must always be learning. Grandma did a lot to encourage her children and grandchildren to learn and progress.

We visited Grandma the summer before I went to college. I planned to go on a mission as soon as I finished that year of school. While we were visiting, Grandma made sure that I went t o one of the shops downtown to buy a suit. "You'll need it for your mission and I want you to get one now," she said. I went shopping and Grandma ended up buying me two suits. I almost wore one of them out during that next year at college but the second one lasted throughout my mission. Of course it was worn out by the time I came home. A year and a half after returning home I became engaged to be married. Something that really added to my wedding memories was having Grandma Booth fly out to Utah for the wedding. I think that may have been her last trip west. When she got here she said, "You need a suit. Go to the store and pick out a nice one and I'm going to pay for it". I did and every time I wore it I was reminded of Grandma. She always looked her best and she did all she could to see that I looked my best, as well.