One Year

One year ago my cousin Steven and his wife Catheryn passed away at Strawberry Reservoir. I remember getting the news. I had been in class all day and when I finally was going home for the day I checked my messages and my parents had left one saying that Steven and Catherine were in a boat accident and were missing. My heart sank. I started to cry on the way home. I remember going to my grandma's house that night, and then going up to the lake nearly everyday searching for them. I remember the Sunday after this happened going to church and singing "Master the Tempest is Raging" as the opening song. I cried through the bulk of the song, as we sang:

Master, the tempest is raging!
The billows are tossing high!
The sky is oershadowed with blackness
No shelter or help is nigh
Carest Thou not that we perish?
How canst Thou lie asleep
When each moment so madly is threatening
A grave in the angry deep?

The winds and the waves obey Thy will
Peace, be still!

I remember in that same meeting that the stake president was going to ask everyone to go up to Strawberry to go help with the search that day, had a ground search still been needed. So many people reached out in love when they heard about the accident. There are some truly good people in this world.

I remember the sorrow felt as a family for the loss of our cousins that we loved, and the closeness that it caused among our extended family. The constant stories of the miracles of Kimball and a friend, Mike getting out of the lake alive. Steven and Catheryn are two of my heroes.

I remember playing in grandma and grandpa's back yard as a child with Steven. I recall a few occasions of making Grasshopper Stew for people we weren't particularly fond of at the time. I remember playing night games, when it was still safe for kids to do that. As cousins, we all had a lot of fun playing together as kids.

That week of my life will be one I don't forget. They were truly lovely people.

Lorin, Steven's brother, made a beautiful tribute video, feel free to watch it: