Loving Lenna was the easiest possible thing to do

Loving Lenna was the easiest possible thing to to do.

Her happiness, her glow, her concern for my own happiness.

I will always be grateful to God for allowing Lenna to bless my life.

Forever touched,
Terry Rasmussen

Undelivered Card

This is a card I had written and not delivered yet. :)
I meant to bring it with the dinner that Sunday night, but didn't. I'm so thankful to have been blessed to know her.

Dear Lenna,
I can't believe you sent a gift for the baby shower with all you're going through right now!
Thank you for your kindness and even more than that, thank you for your example of someone who is so thoughtful of everyone else while you're in the middle of great trials. I am so thankful to know you! Please call us if you need anything at all. We love you so much!
Love, Kit

Never be forgotten

We love you.
Thank you Lenna.
Your love of fun and family and life that you shared with me will never be forgotten.

Love

Dear Rick,
We loved her so much. We will miss her.
Love,
The Lees

Elegant Lady!

Such an elegant lady! Sure will miss her.
Sandra Lundquist

Fun to talk to

Lenna and I visit taught together for the last year and I loved it. She is so much fun to talk to and I love hearing her testimony.
Stephanie Weeks

Beautiful Funeral

Rick and Family -
I just wanted to say thank you for the beautiful funeral service, the program, the pictures, the flowers that so reminded me of Lenna, the testimony and loving words of all but especially those of Hailey, Luke, and Renae (prayer). The music was so Lenna and I know she will never be forgotten by any of us. Thank you for the tender loving care that you took of her through these last months. You are a wonderful family. Thank you for your examples. You are in my thoughts and prayers.

Love,
Sheri Ray

Luke it was worth 3 days work for the beautiful program with the pictures of the family. We feel the joy you have together.

Lenna went out of her way

Lenna went out of her way to always help anyone in need.
When she was on vacation she tracked down some dear friends of mine in Grand Cayman and took pictures of them for me and brought letters to them from me! She didn't even hardly know me at the time but was so sweet to help me out. I was so grateful for that!

Best Teacher

Lenna was my YW leader, RS teacher, and dear friend. When I grew up I wanted to teach the way she always taught me. I love her dearly and I always will.

A fond memory that has taught me a valuable skill was a college cooking activity we did at her house. She taught me how to make wonderful tings out of scrap food around the house. I have since then never stopped loving creating food from scratch in my own home. I love you Lenna!

Good person

You are such a good person Aunt Lenna that I might give you even my life!!!
I miss you so much that I would do anything to see you.

Bryce H. Martin

Happy your pain is gone...

Aunt Lenna,
I really love you. I am happy that your pain is all gone and you feel better. I am going to really miss you.
Love,
Olivia Sellick

Fun to be good and do good

Lenna was such a good friend to me in high school when I had a lot of friends but none so "good" as she was (is). She made it fun to BE GOOD and DO GOOD when a lot of people were thinking of things much more shallow.

She was nice, cool, fun, kind, smart, popular, friendly, a good student, and so loyal and understanding - even at a young age. I know now that she came to earth with many of the qualities some of us work at all our lives to try to achieve.

Through the past 40+ years since high school our infrequent encounters have reaffirmed her "goodness" that drew me to her in our teens. I, too, have basked in the light of her faith. She was a woman of great faith and strength with EXTRAORDINARY FOCUS on living what she believed. She is amazing and I am so thankful that she was in my path and my dear friend. I love her so very much.

Sheri Anderson Ray

Many reasons...

We love the Barber Family for so many reasons.
Thank you for your love, service, spiritual insights, and just being you. We will miss Lenna but have many wonderful memories of her.
Maxine Claude Adams

Happy

I hope you are happy.
Love,
Mark J. Sellick

Love you!

Christmas Eve parties in Idaho Falls,
Playing spin the bottle at the Barber's house,
Rick and Lenna being at all our family "events" with Lenna crying for us!
We love you!
Margo and Kenny

Only Great Memories

Memories of Lenna, only great memories. She always brought the spirit and a good light. Someone I -and everyone- could talk to about any trial, any event, and anything. I love sharing "heart to hearts" with her and Rick.

Loved her willingness to help out and help everyone work together to achieve their goals.
Love you Lenna,

Andrew Rasmussen

Jewel

Lenna always made me feel like I was so important to her.

I always hugged her and said "Hi Lenna Darlin!"

She was a jewel!

Dear Friend

Lenna and I grew close as we served together in our primary calling when we both lived in Pocatello in 1975. She is my husband's cousin but she was a dear friend of mine. We had wonderful talks and special times together. I love Lenna!

Jolayne Willmore

First Things First

1) I remember visiting Lenna up at her home in the canyon. She had just baked cookies and there wasn't a crumb anywhere! She was always welcoming and generous.

2) When Renee and Mark blessed Brant in Taylorsville, UT. Lenna was there with a huge feast prepared for everyone... a turkey dinner.

3) Lenna and Rick were a remarkable team! I love my memory of seeing Rick push Lenna in her wheelchair at the Draper temple. They put first things first!

4) Lenna and Rick were always so kind and friendly to us, and are now! One of Lenna's greatest talents was showing her love and appreciation to others.

Mike and Rosemary Neider

The spirit is strong in your home.

Lenna was one of the first to welcome me into the ward and the Barber home. My husband loves to home teach. The spirit is strong in your home.
Tom & Michele Messina

OVLE

I OVLE Lenna (and other random letters) WMUADE RA
COLE (Andrews)

Lenna was love...

What feels like about 100 Christmases.
Best 4th of July's ever.
A warm loving home.
A good friend.
Lenna was love.

Love her dearly,
Colleen Neider

I really miss you!

Aunt Lenna,
I really miss you. I like how nice you were. I love you.
Tess Selick

LUV

I LUV AT LANNA!
MAX (Hamblin)

Love you Lenna

Jeanne

Lenna and Babies

Shew as always holding a baby!
Tema and Tre

Maverick Mug

I will never forget Lenna and Rick giving up an entire day to drive us around Eagle Mountain and show us the 'ropes' of Utah. Lenna also introduced us to the Maverick Mug for refills of soda. It was a fantastic day. :)

Stephanie Howell

She was Inspirational

Dear Barber Family,

I loved Lenna Barber! We were switched to the 16th ward and Lenna was one of the first members to introduce herself to us. Her love and beauty was evident at that time. She was diagnosed within months and my heart broke when I realized what a terrible disease it could become. Watching her deal with her illness over the last 18 months has been inspirational. I felt her true grace and wonderful presence every time I saw her. Any time she spoke her testimony inspired me to be a better woman and mother. I am so grateful to have met Lenna and I hope to become the woman she portrayed each day.

Misha Edwards

Missing You Lenna

Christmas bells, always new wallpaper, always decorating new homes, excellent at everything. Everything top notch, Friend, card games and Scrabble, and movies.
Missing you Lenna.
Love,
your friend Susan

I love my cousins like sisters

My memories of Lenna are when we were young growing up. Sharon was my sister Vicki's age, Lenna was just older than me by almost a year exactly.

I was born November 23, 1950. Renae was my sister, RoZan's age. Coy and Patrice must be pretty close in age.

We all had long hair and wore it pulled back in a pony tail. They would come to our ranch and we would go horse back riding for hours.

Of course we would have to take turns, but there was always other things to do while we waited for our turn.

One Easter I remember them coming and we went for an Easter hike.

I remember going to their house and riding in their new car! We were young, Lenna and I probably 7 and 8.

When I was in my teens and my 'summer job' was to ride the rake pulled by a big work horse, I thought.....what would Lenna

think if she could see me now.

I love my cousins like sisters. MaryJo Snyder

Such a Lovely Lady

April said...

I'm so, so sorry to hear that she has passed.

The one and only time I met Lenna about two years ago when Holly & I were working on the Survivor Night for our Ward. I remember at the time thinking what an energetic, talented and kind lady she was. She did amazing things with the decorations and was such a huge help to everyone. It was very obvious that she loved Holly and was proud of her. Such a lovely lady.

March 5, 2011 3:55 PM

Aunt Yenna

Felicia said...

*Playing card games with Aunt Yenna (Brayden couldn't say his L's when he was little and called her Yenna and the name stuck). We would all stay together up in McCall and in the evenings play card games for hours until we're all "punch drunk" and making ourselves sick on Good 'n Plenty and Peanut M&Ms.
*Lenna took care of me one time after surgery and she would set her alarm so she could give me my pain medication in the middle of the night (I couldn't get out of bed). Anyway one night at 3am, she came in and woke me up to give me my meds and then she randomly decided to start showing me some good general floor exercises and stretches. She then realized the time and said, "I guess this isn't the best time to be showing you this!" Maybe you had to be there, but it was funny and I loved teasing her about it.

March 5, 2011 4:45 PM

1 week

It has been 1 week since the passing of Lenna.

All the formal things are finally over which leaves us time to work through our own thoughts and grief of our mom, sister, friend, and angel. Many other things still need to be taken care of in the future, but we don't try to think about it and plan right now. Things are all unclear. All we know is we miss our Angel Mother.

Heavenly Father and many other angels that live here and loved Lenna like we did are taking care of us.

THOUGHTS OF LENNA for Her Family

I remember that Rick and Lenna were among the first people to welcome Jerry and me into our new home and neighborhood when we moved next door to them in the Fall of 2008. We had lived all over the U.S. in our married life, and retired to a condo in Salt Lake City. A call to serve in the presidency of the Accra Ghana L.D.S. Temple took us to spend wonderful time in Africa among our choice brothers and sisters there. Upon our return, we knew we needed more space with our large family of 10 children and, at that time, 31 grandchildren, so we prayed and felt led to our new home in Draper. No one could have received a kinder and warmer reception than we did from the Barbers, and we knew we’d made absolutely the right choice of a place to live.

It seemed to me that every Relief Society function in our new ward that was done in the most incredible manner, not only as to beautiful décor but also in all those small touches that added true spirituality, could be credited to the never-ending creativity and massive amount of work put in by Lenna. And it was not just for the sake of pleasing the eye and gladdening the heart, but truly to bring us closer to the Savior. It didn’t take long to learn that Lenna was indeed a special daughter of her Heavenly Father.

We were often the recipients of some goodie from the Barber’s garden, but last summer I noted that Lenna’s walk was slower and her energy level not as high. I remember crying with her the day she told me of the ALS diagnosis.

Before she needed a walker or wheelchair, I was visiting her one morning and as I went to leave, received the strong impression: “Ask Lenna to join your scripture study group.” A number of sisters who had all served in Ghana gather one morning a week at my home to study the Book of Mormon together. My first thought in response was that she would not want to do so, knowing none of those women. But the impression came more forcefully, and so I did. To my surprise, she said she would love to. She came each week, even after she had to do so with a walker. When she was finally confined to a wheelchair and couldn’t get up the stairs into our home, she asked that we meet at her home, and we did until the last couple of weeks, when she felt to weak to even listen.

I thought, when I felt pressed to issue the invitation, it was because Lenna would benefit from that time we all spent together discussing and pondering the scriptures– and I think she did. But I came to realize that the rest of us benefitted far more from learning those things she had to teach us. Her faith, her courage, her absolute trust in her Father in Heaven was an inspiration and strength to each one of us. The greater blessings came to us as she shared personal insights and testimony. Always, her concerns about leaving mortality soon were over what would happen to her husband, children, and grandchildren. She labored to leave a letter for each one to say those things she would not be able to share in person in the coming years. All she really wanted was that her family be an eternal family, and remain true to those great gospel truths she had learned for herself were indeed true.

Jerry and I have seen others die with Lou Gehrig’s Disease. It is a terrible thing to watch them slowly lose function in each part of their body, all the various body systems shutting down. And through all that, as they often end up with nothing working unless aided by a machine of some sort, only their brain still functions, trapped in a body that has become useless to them. We did not want to see that happen to Lenna, and so, like so many others who love her, we prayed each night that, if she was not to be healed, she would go quickly and quietly. Why is it that we pray so hard for something and then are sometimes amazed when the answer is “yes”? Everyone believed she might live for many months still and continue to physically deteriorate, but a kind Father deemed it was not necessary in her case.

I’d like to tell her family about a couple of small “tender mercies” we were involved in on the morning Lenna slipped quietly back home to her Heavenly Father. We were invited to the home of one of our sons for a waffle breakfast, and were looking forward to that. Then we awoke to about 8 inches of very wet snow, so Jerry decided we would put off our visit until the afternoon and he would shovel the walks. He has shoveled Rick and Lenna’s walks before, and when Jerry has early morning temple duty, Rick has shoveled ours. But Jerry always does our first, and then does the Barbers. That morning, he just felt for some reason that he should do the Barber’s walks first. Then he did their driveway and front steps. After that he returned to do ours, and went in our back yard to shovel decks and walks there.

When I knew we weren’t leaving, I climbed back under the covers in my pajamas and grabbed a book I wanted to read. I hadn’t read for long when I felt as though someone spoke in my ear, saying “You need to get up and get dressed.” My response was, why on earth should I do that when I was going nowhere and enjoying lazily reading my book? So I kept reading. The injunction was repeated more firmly, and, remembering times past when I had learned to listen to that little voice – or sadly had not listened- I decided to get up. I showered and dressed quickly and was just finishing pulling on clothes when our front doorbell rang. It took me a minute to get to the door as I finishing some buttoning up, and when I opened it, no one was on the steps. I looked out to the front sidewalk and Rick stood there in the freezing cold in slippers, no coat, with a phone in one hand and sobbing. I believe he was in shock. I called to him and he just kept saying, “Oh, she’s gone.” I told him I would grab my coat and come and then I yelled out the back door to Jerry to go quickly.

Rick had awakened to find Lenna’s spirit gone. As you know, they had been awake nearly all night with Lenna unable to rest, and so fell asleep toward morning. Rick was completely devastated. He had been trying to reach family and other friends by phone but had been unable to get hold of anyone. Perhaps that was partially because he was so upset he couldn’t dial correctly. I just don’t know. But we were able to get hold of Brother Larson and the Bishop, and soon Sister Jorgenson and other ward members arrived to take care of all that needed doing. As I looked out at all the cars pulling into the driveway I was thankful that Jerry had shoveled there first.

Many well just sneer and call all this coincidence. But the older I get the more I become aware of the “tender mercies” Heavenly Father affords his children to help through troubled times. The trials and heartaches are by no means all taken away. This life is indeed a test, and they are necessary to our growth and increased understanding. But in so many ways He gives evidence that He knows and cares - and hurts with us, and will do what is both possible and right to help us. This really had nothing to do with either me or Jerry- we just happened to be the people who lived next door and would be in a position t o offer a little needed help at the time it was needed. So those promptings came to us. But the tender mercy was for Rick, who the Heavens knew would need a bit of a helping hand and sincere hugs in those early moments. I know many others could tell you similar accounts of promptings that came to them to helping through this time. My testimony is that Father in Heaven loves and carefully watches over Rick and Lenna Barber – and all of us How blessed we for the Atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ, And how blessed to have been part of Rick and Lenna’s story – and we look forward to being a part of that story eternally.

Leslie Pearson Rees

Share Your Memories of Lenna

We all loved her because she loved us first. Let others know how Lenna blessed your life and made you a better person like she did for all of us.

Then we will publish it and all keep a copy to remember Lenna forever. We'll keep learning from her example in your stories and teach our children from it.