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Show in my father's house/ 53 someone "from the world" might have called sensual. And the way her dark eyes flashed and darted when the young men flirted with her....John Y. felt his daughter should be married, the sooner the better. When he met my father, he knew immediately where Rachel's lay. security^ Newly free of his first wife and thirty years old, John Y. viewed Rulon as the perfect mate for his immature, love-hungry daughter. The young doctor, seasoned by the hardship of his marriage, rendered fatherly compassion toward group members. Meeting the world head-on and grappling with Church leaders for a testimony to call his own earned him self-respect and the high regard of the Short Creek commune. And he would soon be established as a healer among them. John Y. arranged the betrothal as was the custom of Short Creek patriarchs, who supposedly knew the will of God not only for themselves but for other people as well. Although Rachel immediately agreed, the marriage was set for a couple of months hence, to finalize my father's divorce. Then my father met Aunt Gerda. Gerda knew from the start that God intended the young doctor for her. Undisturbed by his former marriage and his engagement to Rachel, Gerda arranged to date him. She confessed her testimony of the Principle, let it be known where she felt she belonged, and a conversation with John Y. and my father decided that Gerda would pre-empt Rachel's marriage-date by three days |