As I scanned the list of 250 youth who will be going on the stake handcart trek, I was surprised to notice the names of two out-of-stake youth, grandchildren of Russell and Wendy Perry, who will be going, too.  My job is to assign the name of one of the handcart pioneers to each of the youth who are making the trek.  As I contemplated the names of Taylor and Haylee Wiegman, I realized that but for my wife, neither they nor their father, Ben, would exist.

The story is this:

Back in 1969-70 Wayne Wiegman was a sailor assigned to work at a secret communications base at Sidi Yahia, Morocco in North Africa.  The base was 17 miles from his apartment.  Each day after he went to work, his wife, Diane, would do the dishes and whatever else she could find to do, and would then go outside and sit on her doorstep.  They were newly-weds.  Diane was far from home, knew no one, and was bored.

There were three apartments on the ground floor of the L-shaped building.  Diane’s was the apartment on the right as you were looking at the building.  The building had two floors.  The middle apartment upstairs was occupied by another newly-wed naval couple, James and Marjorie Kerns.  Marjorie observed Diane sitting on her doorstep every morning, and went down to introduce herself.  They immediately became best friends.  Diane would watch for James to leave each day, and would then go up and spend the day with Marjorie.

Diane had a brother, but Wayne was an only child.  They determined that they were going to have just one child.

Diane was intrigued with Marjorie’s outlooks on life and religion.  She constantly peppered Marjorie with questions.  She’d come each day with a whole new set of questions dealing with the things she’d been thinking about.  The two couples became fast friends and did things together.

James and Marjorie had gotten to Morocco before Wayne and Diane, so they also were first to go back home to the states.  But shortly after the Wiegmans returned home,  Marjorie received a letter from Diane announcing that they had been baptized, and had joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I believe that took place in their home state of Florida.

Wayne went to school, and moved his family to Idaho.  Diane and Wayne raised eight children in McCammon, Idaho where Wayne served as a bishop.  In the small world that is the Church, their son, Ben, met and married a girl from the Kerns’ La Grande Oregon Stake.

Thus it is that Ellen Wiegman, Diane and Wayne’s eldest, did not turn out to be an only child.  Thus it is that Ben came to be, and thus it is that the Perrys were supplied with a son-in-law and a set of grandchildren.

And now here we are with things coming full circle.  Our grandchildren and the Wiegman’s grandchildren are going to go on the same handcart trek.  I hope they get together, get acquainted, and can share this story about their common background.  (July 2017).