Biography

They finally convinced me to write a short biography/spotlight for the Relief Society newsletter.  I don't like writing about myself, so this is how I did it:

I am writing out of concern for my dear neighbor, Emily Yorke, and her family. They moved into the old farmhouse next door a year and a half ago with their large family of nine. She was all aglow and rambling about living the country life. Her husband seemed more than a little concerned with trying to fit beds for 9 into a 2-bedroom house. Within a couple of months there were horses, cats, goats, a donkey, a dog, and chickens running all over the place and she was pregnant, again! I saw with my own eyes a goat coming out of their house and chickens in their van. Last summer they remodled their home...both bathrooms at once! Now kids and animals were relieving themselves outdoors. I don't know what they were thinking taking that all on just before having a baby! One day, I saw her-eight months pregnant-walking determinedly from the barn to the house sledgehammer in hand. I dared not ask what she was up to. I stopped in to make a neighborly call after they finished. After recovering from the shock of the piles of laudry being folded right on the kitchen table, I observed that the remodling had turned out very nice. Only a couple of months later she was back out running around the perimeter of the property with her whole string of kids, a dog, and a pig in the rear...I think she was a runner in school. Last Novemer, she told me she needed a way to help her kids earn money for college and missions. I humbly suggested she should have thought through the incredible financial burden of having such a large family before now. Then, I subtley emphasized my point by telling her that even in the country we get our over-productive animals fixed. She simply smiled and told me she was thinking about raising dogs. I do not exaggerate in the least when I say that before the month was out there were 22 dogs and puppies at that place. I pressed her mother for details about her upbringing, hoping to find some logic behind the chaos. She grew up in Pennsylvania and Indiana-the oldest of 8 kids. She went to BYU after graduating and married her husband, LaMonte, after her freshman year. They moved to Dallas after having their first baby. They transferred here with his company which has a plant in Neosho. Now, I am not one to judge others. I stick to my own, mind my own business. But, I could hardly consider myself Christian to keep these shocking observations to myself. I do have to say, however, that I am slightly amused as I consider what she will come up with next.