In My Father's House

Page 712

733 "Too cold. I t ' s a l l snow water." Once, perhaps, i t had been a mountain peak, a green-treed pinnacle reaching for clouds and eagles. They had been happy the first year, she working so that he could go to osteopath school to become l i k e her f a t h e r , a doctor. It was a small enough sacrifice; someday she would r e t u r n to the way of l i fe she had always known. But t h e i r f i r s t child had died, and the second had been s i c k l y . My f a t h e r spent most of his time on church a c t i v i t i e s - t r a v e l i n g to the Mesa Temple to do work for the dead, or in the genealogical l i b r a r y doing research, or p r e s i d i n g at one meeting or another. She hadn't realized he was so. . . zealous. She was home, alone, with the children, another and then another. Although my father graduated from college with a degree in naturopathy, he was seldom home to t r e a t his p a t i e n t s . Karen had no money for groceries; she would have to c a l l the library or track him down at the ward-house to take care of a waiting p a t i e n t . They quarreled b i t t e r l y. Anu -then tame xne f i n a l straw, my grandfather's book on the P r i n c i p l e . My f a t h e r , staunch supporter of the official church, called his own f a t h e r to repentence and accused him of 'kicking against the p r i c k s ' of righteous authority. A stream of correspondence followed, and as my father became convinced, Karen and her mother- a woman who gave no quarter of belief to plural marriage although she was a Mormon by b i r t h - were incensed.' Karen threatened to leave with the children several times, came close to accepting the Principle, then did leave - perhaps hoping to shock him out of his allegiance to t h ^ # i * c A p ^ _ _ 3 h ^ separation grew into a divorce.