Mark McKell's Memories

Tonight we spent Family Home Evening with a wonderful older gentleman in our neighborhood.  Brother Mark McKell is 94 years old, and he is a most wonderful and enjoyable host.  He invited us into his home to get to know us better, and (despite less-than-well-behaved children) we had a marvelous evening.

Brother McKell was born in a little house on Center Street, and has lived here in Spanish Fork just about his entire life--he was three years in the army during World War II, and then he and his wife lived in Provo for several years as he finished his education at BYU.  They bought a piece of land for $1000 in the mid-1940s, and then built a house and moved in 1947, and he has lived there ever since.

He has so many memories and information about Spanish Fork, the First Ward, and how things used to be.  It is a treat to talk to him.  He was the Bishop of the First Ward for six years, and only missed church twice.  On one of the two sacrament meetings he missed, an older brother got up to bear his testimony.  "I don't know why the Lord still has me here on Earth," the brother said.  After he finished his testimony, he sat back down on the pew and...promptly died.  What a week to miss! 

Brother McKell showed us a Jex family picture taken in the City Park, up against the east side of the old City Office Building, in the mid-1920s. They tore that building down a long time ago, but it is funny to think about the young Brother McKell, looking out over the City Park, to where my house now stands. 

Brother and Sister McKell (she died in October 2007) had their wedding reception at the old dance pavilion or ballroom--apparently this used to stand on the corner of the park directly across my house.  He told us they used to go dancing there weekly.  He remembers all the old songs, and plays them on his massive Lowrey Organ, every night before he goes to bed.

Oh, that organ.  Brother McKell never played a note in his life before his late 70s, when he and his wife decided to get an organ.  Now it is his pride and joy.  He takes organ lessons down in Payson, and loves every minute of it.  He played at least four different songs for us, all very sweet and beautiful.  We sang along with some of them.  And there is an applause button that he pushes after every song.  Hebs especially enjoyed that, and made sure to clap along every time. 

We ate ice cream cones on the front porch near the end of the evening, and he talked about his farm down in Leland (just south of Spanish Fork proper), and the cattle he had for years and years.  (In fact, he just got rid of his cattle last winter, after one mean cow kicked him and broke his hip (or his back, I can't remember).  Remember, this was when he was 92 years old, still going out most every winter morning to feed those silly creatures.  Amazing.)

But amazing is just what Brother McKell is.  He started and ended the evening by showing us pictures of his family when the kids were very young, and then the big picture taken a few years ago with all the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.  He has a mighty posterity, and he wanted to impress on us how important is it to stay close to the gospel, to teach the children how important families are, and how quickly they will grow and become parents of their own children.  And how wonderful that is.

I hope, when I grow up, I can be as amazing as he is.