In Loving Memory

Vearis Anderson Orgill Lisenbee

June 22, 1917 - January 17, 2009

My sweet little grandma passed away during the night. She was 91 years old and had lived a long and wonderful life.

She was born and raised in Grantsville, lived in Wendover for a while, where she met my Grandpa. Together they had four sons. They later divorced and my Grandma raised those four sons by herself. She did an amazing job and was such a wonderful mother. All four of her sons served missions and married in the temple.

My memories of her are so precious. When we were little Sharon and I spent countless hours at her house playing dress up, playing on the typewriter, sleeping out in the camper, helping put up Christmas decorations, helping in her garden, and making tapioca pudding. She was always so sweet to us and never raised her voice. She'd always make us "Granny Bags"- which was a little treat bag full of whatever cookies she had around the house, usually animal crackers and marshmellows. But, the thing that sticks out in my mind the most is when she would dress up as Santa Claus on Christmas Eve and give us gifts and sing songs with us. We called her "Grandma Ho Ho."

My grandma was one of those that really encouraged me to serve a mission. She said that she always wanted one of her granddaughters to serve, and I'm the youngest granddaughter and that I was her only hope. How could I let her down? I'll never forget saying goodbye to her before I left for my mission, we hugged and cried for a good while in her driveway.

When I returned home from my mission Grandma was not in good health and soon after she moved up to an assisted living center in Tooele. She always had hopes that she would get better and go home, but we all knew it was not possible.

When I got married I wanted her to be there, I didn't know if she would be able to make it. But, I was overjoyed when I walked into the sealing room and saw my little Grandma there! What a tender mercy. She didn't know at the time, but I was wearing her temple clothes. I'm the only granddaughter small enough to fit in them, so now they are mine.

She had a love for geneology. In her later years she dedicated her life to doing temple work. I will never forget one time when I visited Grandma and spent a good while with her. She showed me a binder that had a record of every time she had gone to the temple. It had the date, which temple, the name of the person she went through for, and any special experiences. There was page after page of names... thousands of names! I told her how amazing it was and she said, "Well, this is only since the 1970s... who knows how many names I did before that!" I can only imagine the great welcoming she is recieving right now from the thousands of spirits she served!

She was an unwaivering example of faith, patience, and charity. She was completely dedicated to the Gospel. Truly she was an elect lady.