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Show ELVINA Elvina Rasmussen was a school teacher of eleven years experience and had been teaching in Mt. Pleasant for the past year while boarding with the L. P. Nelson's. Copper lights glinted through Elvina's hair of brown shades. Medium-blue eyes and light olive skin coloring were interesting complexion companions on the willowy school teacher. John K had been attracted to her when they first met, and after a spasmodic courtship carried on in his brief stays at home, they were married on 29 May 1908, in Manti, Utah. Elvina brought into home life an element of stability that Pearl had never really known while various housekeepers and hired girls intermittently spaced the tenures of Virginia and Thurza. Pearl was just five years old when her new mama came into her life, and she called Elvina "Ella Mama". The next autumn, John K and Elvina decided that Aleen should come home to live and complete their family circle. It meant having a long talk with the grandmother who had nursed the weak baby back to health following the untimely death of Katie. It was natural that Ann Maria had grown attached to the little girl in three and half years, but she also knew that Aleen's place was at home with her family. So with self-discipline and controlled grief, the grandmother relinquished her charge. And the pages of the past lonely years turned as Pearl and Aleen assumed sister roles to each other. 87 |