Sandra Sue Borland was born July 14, 1943 in Toledo, Ohio. She was the 5th and last child of Carlen Leroy and Elma Claire Borland. From her conception there were forces against her being born. When her older brother Carlen was born, it was a hard delivery and he almost died. When my grandmother’s doctor found out my grandmother was pregnant again he wanted her to terminate the pregnancy. It was the easiest delivery of all her children. Also my grandmother was pregnant with my mom at the same time as her oldest brother’s wife was pregnant with their 2nd child. So my mom had a nephew that was older then her, and one that was a few weeks younger.
One of my mom favorite stories to tell from her early childhood is when her and her older brother Carlen wrapped their naked bodies in towels and went flashing in their neighborhood in Toledo. He was 4 years older than her and she just did what he was doing. Unfortunately, they happened to flash their mother as she was coming around the corner on her way home from work. Needless to say that was the last time they decided to go flashing.
Mom’s sister Mary Lou was about 10 years older than Mom. Whenever Mary Lou had a date my grandparents would send my mom with her as a chaperone. Mary Lou especially hated taking my mom on dates to the movies with her because as we all know mom is quite a talker, and the only time she is quiet in a movie is when she falls asleep during the movie.
Many people collect things over their lives, but when they die the things they have collected stay on the earth while their spirit goes to heaven. Because my mom loves people she collected friends throughout her life. She worked hard to maintain her friendships till the end of her life. Many came to visit during her last days while she was in the hospice center. The friendships that she cultivated she will have thru eternity.
When mom was 11 years old, her parents bought a small farm in Petersburg, MI. When she was at school she met a girl named Linda. Linda didn’t have many friends visit her at home because she lived in the country, and not in town. The farm that mom lived on backed up to Linda’s farm. My mom told her she would visit her, but Linda didn’t believe her. Sure enough my mom showed up on Linda’s doorstep after hiking thru the woods that connected their properties, and they have always remained friends. Mom was pretty athletic growing up she used to hurdle a fence to get the mail and she also taught Linda how to swim and tried to teach her how to ice skate. Linda was in a car accident 18 years ago and is a quadriplegic, but she made it up to visit mom the day before she died.
Although mom has stayed in touch with many people from her high school years there are 2 that she has stayed especially close with. One is a friend named Marilyn that ended up marrying my dad’s brother. The other was her English Teacher, from her senior year of high school. The teacher came to visit the mom at the hospice.
When mom was 17 the Mormon missionaries were teaching her sister Mary Lou about the LDS Church. My mom asked to listen to the missionaries after reading the Joseph Smith pamphlet. They set up a date and at first she gave the missionaries a really hard time. She continued to listen to what the missionaries taught, she did a lot of praying and felt that what they were teaching was right and was eventually, baptized as a member of the LDS church. That was a decision that changed the rest of her life.
After mom was out of high school for a few years she moved to Orange, CA to help Mary Lou with her kids. While she was there she met Robert Pate and they became friends. Dad had just joined the church. A year after joining the church my dad decided to go on a mission for the church and was sent to Chile. My mom maintained their friendship throughout the 2 years he was gone, even though he was seriously dating my mom’s friend when he left. When dad was on his mission, this other friend married somebody else. My parents are still friends with her.
After my dad came home from his mission both of my parents were going to BYU. My mom had 5 roommates that she has kept in contact with thru the years. We would go visit them whenever we were on our way to CA. One of those friends is Sherry Brewer. At least that is what my parents always called her. She posted on the blog we set up for my mom and I found out that her name is really Sheryl. One of my favorite stories from my mom’s college days is when she had waken up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. Since my mom was almost blind without her glasses she never turned on the lights. While my mom was seated, one of her roommates also had to use the bathroom. Mom didn’t say anything when her roommate walked into the bathroom and was just about to sit on my mom’s lap when mom said BOO! And scared the daylights out of her.
After being at BYU for a while my mom decided she needed to move back to Toledo and live with her parents who were having some health problems. When she was there she started going to nursing school to become an LPN. One of her instructors was a woman named Mrs. Buck. Mrs. Buck introduced her to another student named Judy. Of course my mom is still friends with both of them. We went to Toledo in July and visited Mrs. Buck and Judy came to the hospice to visit my mom 2 weeks after having back surgery.
While my mom was going to nursing school in Toledo my dad was still going to school in Provo at BYU, they kept in touch thru letters. He proposed to her in a letter and she never acknowledged his proposal so he bought a ring and went to Toledo to visit her and proposed to her. Of course we all know she said yes and they were married June 6, 1970 in the LDS Los Angeles Temple. At my mom’s death they had been married 38 years
After they were married they lived in Provo while my Dad finished his bachelors and masters in Electrical Engineering. My parents were very excited to have children and my mom became pregnant right away. Unfortunately that pregnancy ended in a miscarriage. A few months later mom was pregnant with me. During her pregnancy my dad graduated from college and found a job in Norwalk, CA where I was born.
A few years later my parents had been transferred to Page, AZ where my dad was helping to build a power plant. One day when my mom was pregnant with David, we drove up toward the north rim of the Grand Canyon with a friend and her daughter to look for a Christmas Tree. While driving my dad hit some snow on the bend of the gravel logging road and we crashed down a mountain, falling 57 feet. Although there were some bruises and bumps we all walked away safely. The man who pulled out the car said he had never pulled a car out of that canyon where the people had lived. We are still friends with Sherry and Robin.
A while later, during a visit to visit my mom’s parents my cousins Bucky and Gena were living with our grandparents. Because our grandparents were older it was hard for them to take care of Bucky and Gena, so they came back to Page to live with us. The lived with us for 7 years, and then off and on throughout their high school years. My parents never treated them any different then their own children and have always loved them as if they were their own children. During the next few years we moved to Paige, AZ again and then back to Norwalk.
In January of 1977 my dad was transferred to Ann Arbor, MI. Mom and dad bought a house on Grant Drive. There was so much snow on the ground we didn’t know we lived on a dirt road until the spring when the snow melted. Before we moved mom had thought she was pregnant, but her Dr. insisted that she wasn’t, she was just sick. Soon after moving she went to the Dr. again and found out she was pregnant. June 17, Julie was born. We lived in Ann Arbor for 14 years and my mom made more friends then I can count. Many of whom are here today.
In 1991 Dad was transferred again, this time to Gaithersburg, MD. Mom made many more friends while we were in MD, but one family she became especially close to were her Nephew Stephen, his wife Mary and their two sons, Weseley and William. My mom had them over for dinner frequently and Mary and my mom did a lot of shopping. While living in MD mom was diagnosed with uterine Cancer. The doctors did a hysterectomy and she was told that would be the end of her cancer, and for 14 years it was.
In 1995 dad was laid off from Bechtel after working there for 23 years, and a year later he found another job in Ann Arbor working for another company. They have been living here since then. 3 ½ years ago mom and dad came to visit me in Utah for the birth of Lilly, my last child. I knew something was wrong with mom when eggs were making her sick since she had eaten eggs for breakfast every day of her life. When she went home she was diagnosed with cancer again. She fought a hard battle and never let it get her down. She was always performing service for others in her life and even in the last months when she was so sick. In January her older sister had a stroke and a few times when I called her she was taking dinner to my aunt and uncle in Toledo when she had just had chemotherapy. Also a few months ago I called her and she didn’t answer her phone so I called my dad’s phone. He was a little bit frustrated with her because she was making dinner for somebody who had just had a baby and they were supposed to be at the hospital in 20 minutes for mom to get a blood transfusion. My mom loved to cook for people. Mom had 2 friends that had 7 children each and I remember many times when she would have both families over for dinner at the same time. She also always made dinner for people working at the Church’s annul Creche display, and helped clean up the kitchen after.
After my mom died and I was helping the nurses take care of her, one of the nurses commented that we must have a pretty special religion. She said most families have a really hard time after a death, but we all seemed really calm and comforted. I know that we do have a special religion. The reason why we were calm and comforted is because we believe that death isn’t the end of our lives, it is just a passage into the next phase of our existence and that the relationships that we have in this life we will have for eternity. I know that I will see my mother again, and that our family will be together forever. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
