Grandma Elaine Murphy

Tyson's Grandma Murphy passed away on December 8th at the age of 88.  When she was born her parents were told she would not survive the next 24 hours because of the complications of her birth. Boy, did she ever prove them wrong! She was a really great lady and accomplished many great things in her life including getting a Master's Degree, working in the state mental hospital where she fought for more humane treatments for patients, teaching and being a dean of Nursing at BYU, and raising 6 children, which was especially difficult because her husband passed away in his early 40's while several of the children were still young.  We will miss going to her house in Orem to visit, play with her legos, and have picnics in her back yard. Last Friday we went to her funeral and spent the day with Tyson's extended family, some of whom we haven't seen in several years. They did a nice job of honoring her and a life well lived.

Here's Tyson's thoughts from his facebook page about his grandma. 

My dear, sweet, amazing, wonderful, intelligent, fantastic, delightful, brilliant grandmother, Elaine Murphy, has passed her time amongst the living. She lived a great and glorious life and has died a good death. She had an honorable life and was able to experience an honorable, dignified death. Thanks in large part to the love, the care, and the compassion of her children in taking such diligence in providing and caring for her, at home, in a comfortable place. A loving and peaceful place. Yes, her's was an honorable and even a good death. To die with your daughter holding your hand......at the end of it all. There truly are right and noble ways to die. I feel that my grandma was lucky enough to experience such a death. Thank you, Susan Chappell, mom, for your profound patience and care for grandma through these many years.
 
 With all death, comes new life. And with the approaching Winter solstice, longer days and shorter nights will breathe new life with the advent of Spring. The circle of life, the wheel of progress, growth, adaptation, and change continues on. We live, we love, and through our memories we provide immortality to those that have reached the ends in their current form. And all matter continues on, forever in forms vast, remarkable, and all so very beautiful and majestic. From our first birth that came with the death of a star to our death as an individual, the matter that we are currently constituted will continue on forever. And this is beautiful and glorious. This knowledge should allow a good death and peace of mind for the living.

We may never meet again in forms our memories hold as being that of our loved ones, but we will absolutely meet those again that have passed from this life. When we behold the beauty of the Earth, rock and rich soil, the grass and trees, the birds and animals, we see and experience our loved one's in all these forms great and small. We are all part of one great whole. We are all one.