I had a baby brother David, who was born 15 months after me. We grew up together and I dressed him in my dresses. He was always a good sport. When the Watkins man would come around about once a month, he would look at him and ask, “How is little Mary?”
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| Karolyn and Dave |
David gave me the nickname “Moose”. We’d get in the car to go somewhere and he’d say “Get over, Moose!” and that’s the only nickname I ever remember having. He loved horses and played all the sports. He had a fun personality and always had big dreams. He ended up working as a salesman and traveled around a bit and always talked about becoming a millionaire. Chasing money sort of took over his life and it was a little sad. He was married and had seven children and then divorced his first wife and got remarried and had two more children. But there was several years that went by and we never heard from him. His daughter Jana came to live with us and was planning to get married and wanted her dad there so bad. But we didn’t even know where he was. Then we had a missionary in our ward who was assigned to an area close to where we thought he might be, so we told him to keep an eye out for David Ward when he went out into the mission field. He hadn’t been down there very long, and he wrote a letter back to his mother and said, “Tell Sister Bartschi I found her brother David, and he’s the mission leader down here in this ward.” So we were able to get the message to him that Jana was getting married and wanted her dad to be here for her wedding, and he was here for the wedding.
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| Rose, Dave, and Rulon at Jana Ward's wedding |
I mean it all just fell into place and you just knew the Lord had his hand in it or it never would have worked out the way it did. So that was one time that our prayers were really answered.
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| Sheila and George |
Sheila was born when I was almost 5 years old. I was so thrilled to have a little sister. I really enjoyed having a baby around to love and to hold. As she got older she was really spunky and knew how to take advantage of me. Then I wasn’t sure if I really liked having her around. But we did more together than we ever did with the boys because they were usually out working with dad most of the time. She was sweet but also a little feisty and was always smarter than I was. She knew how to get what she wanted and she could work mother and dad easier than I did and I’d get so frustrated with her. She knew how to get out of doing her work and have me help her. But she’s been a wonderful sister and we have enjoyed each other over the years.
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| Sheila, Rose, Karolyn, George, Rulon, and Dave Ward |
George’s Memories: “Karolyn, as I remember, was always looking after me in my toddler years. Karolyn & Sheila were always dressing me as a little girl fussing over how I looked. Karolyn was always cooking & cleaning she would never waste time! I remember in high school she stayed with friends in town to enjoy many activities. After the snow she would invite friends out to the ranch to ride on the sleigh we used in feeding the livestock and then have an ice-skating party over at water lane with a big fire to keep warm. She loved to have friends come to the ranch, both boys & girls. I remember when she invited Arlin to a family gathering and he was so much fun and always willing to help with everything we were doing. He would become like a big brother to me. We always wanted to visit them in Sugar City with fun things to do and we always enjoyed our visits and still do. When I came to Dixie to play football, I loved the nice winters and never dreamed that Mom & Dad would move here after selling the ranch and the rest of the family would come visit. Karolyn & Arlin served a mission here and set a good example for the rest of us to follow. They later moved here for winters. It was so fun to enjoy the weekly game nights with them. Karolyn, I just want you to know how much our family loves you and appreciates the example you have set. We look forward to being an Eternal Family.”
-George Ward
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| Allen Ward |
I was eleven or twelve years old when Allen was born, and he was my baby. I just took care of him all the time and enjoyed him so much. He was sick quite a bit with colds, croupe, coughing and ear infections. Mother was always putting mustard plaster (flour and mustard mixed with a little liquid to form a plaster) on flannel cloths and kept them on his chest when he had a bad cough. She’d keep it on there until the skin turned pink and then take it off before it started to really burn, but it always felt really warm. Other times she would pour alcohol on a sanitary pad and wrap it around our throats with a rag and pin it when we had a bad cough at night. It would burn for a while, but it would stop us from coughing and helped us feel better. But I was old enough to be able to help mother with Allen and I just loved on him.
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| Allen Ward |
After he graduated high school and went on his mission to Japan, he came and lived with us for a while and started taking wood working classes with Arlin at Ricks College. I remember we had so many kids around the dinner table when Allen lived with us that Bryan would have to go sit at the bread board and eat because there wasn’t enough room. But he was just like a big brother to Craig and Bryan and they became really close. Then Allen met his wife Julie and they moved to Utah where he worked for BYU in their building construction department. He loved woodworking and that was his career. He got a brain tumor when he was a Stake President down in Spanish Fork and that’s when he passed away in 2004. He was only in his early 50’s.
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| Sheila, Karolyn, Dave, George, Rose, Allen, and Rulon Ward |
