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| Mary, 2009 |
Mary was born Dec. 21, 1924, in Peterson, Utah, the daughter of Frederick and Hope Hulet Gardiner. She was raised in Malta, Idaho. In 1947, Mary graduated from the cadet nursing program and worked for several years as a nurse in Salt Lake City and in California. She served a mission for the LDS Church in the New England States Mission. Mary worked in the medical office of Dr. Floyd Cannon until retirement and was then the primary caregiver for her mother in her last years.
She was preceded in death by her parents; two brothers, James H. Gardiner and Robert Gardiner; and two sisters, Dawn Gardiner James and Margaret Gardiner Ottley. She is survived by two brothers, Golden Gardiner of Malta, Idaho, and Frank (Lillian) Gardiner of Provo, Utah; one sister, Gloria (Dean) Ottley of Quincy, Wash.; and numerous nieces and nephews.
A graveside service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, June 29, at the Valley Vu Cemetery in Malta, Idaho, with Bishop Jeff Johnson officiating. Arrangements have been entrusted to the care of the Rasmussen Funeral Home of Burley, Idaho. Published in Deseret News on June 26, 2013
Birth
The weather in December 1924 was extremely cold. It must have been about 20 degrees below zero for about a month. Father and Mother kept a fire in three stoves day and night most of that time. It was one of those very cold nights on 20 December 1924 that my brother, Howard, was sent on old “Fanchon” to the Peterson store to call Dr. Dorland to come to our assistance. We were expecting our third child.
Dr. Dorland lived at Devil’s Slide, about 15 miles southeast of Peterson, in Weber Canyon. He arrived in plenty of time, in spite of the extremely cold weather and a good amount of snow. Our precious little roly-poly daughter arrived early on a Sunday morning, 21 December 1924. She weighed a little less than six pounds. How we did love her. She was healthy and very good-natured. She had brown hair and brown eyes. Golden’s hair was darker. He also had brown eyes. We named our baby Mary Udeta. I had wanted her to have the name Judette, but other members of the family were opposed, as was my Father when my great grandmother wanted me to be named Hope Judette. So I got that near to my wish and had her named Udeta. Her grandfather, Sylvanus C. Hulet, Jr., gave her a blessing and name on 1 February 1925. Hope's history
1925
The latter part of October (1925) the weather was cold and windy. The single canvas cover on the camp wagon was not much protection for the family of little ones. Brother and Sister Gunnell were kind and thoughtful, and told us to move into one room of their house, although I am sure they were obliged to crowd their own family to make room for us. I will always remember and think highly of them. This was a boon to us, as it was warm and comfortable. There was a baby bed in the room. I thought that would be wonderful to keep Mary from falling off the bed. I didn’t think of her trying to climb over, although she was nearly a year old by that time. There was a blanket or something in one corner of the bed that made it higher. She climbed up on that and went over the side of the bed onto the floor. That proved she couldn’t be kept in that bed either. Hope's history
Wagon
The little boys could get in and out of the wagon by themselves, but Mary was too young to walk and there was no place for her to sit but on the bed. From the time she was six months old she would sit by my tin breadbox on the bed and play with anything available. Soon she was able to stand by the breadbox to play. I never could leave her alone in the wagon on the bed even for a minute. I could put her at the back of the bed, but she would squirm around until her feet were against the back of the wagon and she would push with her feet so that she would go head first toward the front of the bed. I had to carry her with me every time I went out to get water or wood or anything else.
One day I was making a cake. I had set the stirring bowl on the seat by the bed, as that was the only counter in the sheep camp. Mary was lying on the bed. I turned to get something out of the cupboard and then, when I turned around, there was my baby, Mary, with her head in the cake bowl. Well, there she was with cake batter all over her head. What a sight! And what a job it was to get the cake batter out of her hair. Hope's history
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| 3 years old, Mary on left, 1927 |
One day that summer, we had an extra heavy sudden rainstorm. We didn’t have time to see that all the young poultry got under shelter. The water ran all around the house. As soon as we could, we went out to see what had happened. An old hen with little chickens got soaked and one little chick was apparently dead and lying in a puddle of rain. June and Golden felt very badly about it. So we took that chick and some others that were soaking wet and chilled into the house. We put a piece of old blanket on the oven door and rubbed them as dry as we could, and tried to warm them. Mary wanted to hold the little chicken that appeared to be dead, so she played around the stove with it for half an hour or more and dropped it several times. June said, “I wish ‘Fodder’ in Heaven would make that little chicken alive again.” In a little while the little chicken began blinking its eyes and jerking its legs, and in a short time it was up running around with its mother. The children called this chicken, “Whistler,” and he grew up to full size.
We still had the three hens we had brought from Utah and about 15 chicks they had raised. One day June said, “Mama, how are you and Daddy going to get a start of chickens? These are all ours, Grandma and Grandpa gave these chickens to us.” Hope's history
School
Mary was ready to start school by this time. She was real anxious to learn to read, but on Thursday of the first week of school, she didn’t want to go with her brothers. Mother and I had been invited to spend the day with Mrs. McGraw. That likely was the reason she refused to go to school. She wanted to go visiting, too. She was ready to go to school the next day and never again refused to go to school. Her teacher was Estella Neddo. She thought so much of Miss Neddo and said, “I wish that I could have Miss Neddo for my teacher all through my school years.” Hope's history
1930 census: (note, top family including Leland Kent Horne, was JHG's best friend growing up)
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| 1938 |
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| 1938 |
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| 1938 |
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| 1940 |
Letter
Kent, I do remember quite well the incident about the rattlesnake being tossed onto the hay wagon. I was on the wagon. I had forgotten that it happened while Carol was with us. That being the case, it was a hot afternoon in August 1936. Dad and the boys, J.H. and Golden, were in the process of putting up the hay crop.
Alfalfa, a deep rooted perennial plant, had been planted in the big field south of the house. When mature it has a small purple blossom. It makes good feed for horses and cows. At this time the alfalfa had been cut down using a horse drawn mower which was in common use at that time and then raked into small heaps using a big rake drawn by one horse.The alfalfa was now dry enough that it could be added to the stack already in the stack yard. Dad had a big wagon for hauling hay. It had 2X4's positioned along the sides close enough to contain the hay that would be tossed into it. The wagon was pulled by two steady old work horses. They would stand unattended and not move a foot while the menfolk with their pitchforks tossed hay onto the wagon. Then Dad or one of the boys would lead them forward to a new spot.
On this particular day someone suggested that it would be a good idea if some of us kids were to be on the wagon and tramp down the hay as it was tossed into the wagon. If it was packed down , more hay could be loaded.
So Dawn and I were helped up into the big wagon. I was eleven years and Dawn was nine years old. We were having a pretty good time tramping hay and probably had about half a load when I looked down and right close in front of me I saw a section of a snake's body-- not moving. It's head and tail were covered with hay. (Lucky for me). It was apparently immobilized. I told Dawn we had a snake. She did not see it. She was on the other side of the wagon. We really did not get excited about it. Anyway I did not know that it was a rattlesnake. We did the only thing that could be done at that point. We just stacked more hay over it and tramped it down good.
When we had a full load, the horses pulled the wagon down to the stack yard and parked it alongside the haystack. Then with the aid of the derrick horse, derrick and huge Jackson Fork, the hay was lifted up from the wagon and dropped over onto the haystack. Then someone, I think it was J.H.,saw a good sized rattlesnake in the stack yard and disposed of it. As I recall, we were not invited to tramp hay again.
I will add a bit more about our use of alfalfa. It was part of the menu for the little turkeys along with oatmeal. Three times a day we would go out to the nearby field and grab off or cut off some alfalfa, take it into the house and cut it up and then we would distribute it along with oatmeal and water to each of the turkey pens. Each mother turkey hen had her own little pen. The pen was opened in the morning and she and her little ones were allowed to roam freely in the yard during the day. Then in the evening she would go back to her own pen and we would board it up for the night so that skunks and weasels could not get at the little turkeys. Mary
1940 census:
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| 1944 |
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| 1949 |
On Friday 3 June 1949, James H. received his Master’s Degree in Sociology, Golden received his B.S. degree in Civil Engineering, Mary received her B.S. in Arts and Sciences, and Hope Dawn received her B.S. degree in Elementary Education. That was a big day for our family. Hope's history
1949 June 19, Morgan Co News:
1951 - 1953 Mission:
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| 1951 - 1953 |
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| 1955 |
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| 1957 |
Schooling
Mary attended elementary and high school at Malta. She was valedictorian for her eighth grade class. After she graduated from Raft River High School in May 1943, she went to work at Hill Air Force Base near Ogden as a clerk typist. She boarded at Peterson, Morgan County, with my sister, Belva Jensen, and family. In June 1944, she entered the Cadet Nurse Program and spent the first six months enrolled in classes at the University of Utah, then began her nurse’s clinical training at the L.D.S. Hospital. She graduated from the L.D.S. Hospital School of Nursing in June 1947 and received her R.N. certification after taking the required examinations. She attended U.S.A.C. for one year and received her B.S. degree in 1949. In January 1949, she went to Idaho Falls and worked in the first blood bank at the L.D.S. Hospital there. In 1950 she returned to Salt Lake City, and was employed as a surgical nurse in the operating rooms until she was called to serve a mission for the Church. She served for two years in the New England States Mission form February 1951 to March 1953. Since that time she has worked at the L.D.S. Hospital and at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles, and has done special duty nursing in San Francisco and Los Angeles. She was head nurse at the hospital in Fillmore one summer while the head nurse there wanted the summer off.
In 1956 she decided to take a business course at the L.D.S. Business College. She worked for the Church Building Department for one year, then went to work in a doctor’s office, where she has worked for several years.
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| LtoR back Sandra, Janice Gerry, middle Elaine, Audrey, Kent, Jeffrey, Gayle, front Mark and Mary. Verdugo Park, Glendale, CA, 1958 |
In June 1960, Mary suffered a very serious case of staphylococcal septicemia following a surgical operation. We were notified that she was not expected to live, but her doctors treated her with very large amounts of antibiotics intravenously continuously for several days and were able to control the infection.
In November 1961, Gloria and Mary got an apartment in Salt Lake and I spent the winter with them that winter and many winters after that. Usually, I went home to Malta for the summer months. Hope's history
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| LtR Hope Hulet Gardiner, James Gardiner, Gloria Gardiner, Mary Gardiner, Dawn Gardiner, front row, Gerry Kroksh, Kent Gardiner, Mark Gardiner, Sandra Gardiner, Janice Gardiner, Gayle Gardiner, Glendale, CA, about 1961. |
1963, June 4
The day before Frank and I left SLC some one took Mary’s wallet out of her purse with nearly $100 in it. She had it in a drawer of the desk at the office. She just stepped out of the office room and walked down the flight of stairs and back up. She said she knows she wasn’t gone 2 minutes. She notices a guy going down the hall when she got back but never thought of her purse until she looked for it at noon. She had been to the bank for money for rent etc. and still had it in her purse when she went to work. Dr. Cannon and Margaret insisted on giving her a check to replace what she lost. The guy had been doing quite a business stealing purses but they have him in jail now. All this happened to the Gardiners in one week.
1970
During the fall and winter of 1970-1971, Mary stayed with me at Malta. I will always remember her kindness and consideration for me. We were taking care of the twenty-three calves for Frank. It was quite a chore, but we quite enjoyed the “pets.” Until one is around animals for a while, they can’t realize how much intelligence they really have. Those twenty-three calves each had a name and they would respond by looking up or coming to us when we called their name. (Hope's letters)
1971 Flood
On 18 January 1971, we had a flood in our area. There had been a heavy snow in the mountains surrounding the valley, then we got a lot of rain, which melted the snow rapidly. That morning was warm and rainy. Mary went out to do the chores and to try to bank up around the feeder, as there was water standing on the ground near the feeders. While she was out in the yard, we could hear a roaring sound, but didn’t think of a flood although we had expected high water in the creek. This was about 9:00 a.m. and Sunday. Suddenly we saw water coming toward the house---all over the field was water. Soon I could hear water running into the basement through the ground level window. All my bottled fruit was in that basement or cellar. I knew it would be impossible for me to carry that fruit and other things that were stored down there out to keep them dry. Luckily, Golden and two of his boys were just passing by on the highway and they could see the situation. They were able to drive their pickup through the water to the house. First, Golden placed some baled straw against the cellar window to stop the water from running in so fast. They immediately went to work carrying things out of the cellar. Soon Mary arrived at the house and helped rescue things from the flooded cellar. My kitchen and dining room were full of boxes of bottled fruit and what not. Soon there was water over a foot deep running all around the house. The creek was not to be seen. The whole place looked like a river. We could see that the water pump for the house would soon be covered with water so we would have no clean water to use. We managed to get a few gallons of clean water, and it is fortunate that we did, because the pump was ruined from standing in water and I had to buy a new one. We had to do some scheming to make our limited supply of clean water last until someone could bring us some and we could get a new pump. How thankful we were that we got such kind help when it was so desperately needed. It was so much appreciate. (Hope's history)
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| 1980 |
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| Mary with Suzanne Gardiner, 1990 |
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| Family Reunion, 2001 |
2009
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| LtR Kent Gardiner, Ryan Gardiner, Ashley Gardiner, Mary Gardiner, Deborah Gardine, 2009 |
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| Mary, Ashley and Frank Gardiner, 2010 |
June 20, 2013
Hi, Last Thursday June 20, Deborah and I went to Salt Lake to visit Mary. We knocked and called with no answer and finally looked behind her screen door and found lots of mail. In talking to her neighbor we were told she was in her garden a few days before so we called Frank and decided to not worry.
The next day the neighbor called and said the mailman had taken the mail back because nobody had picked it up. We called Frank and he went to Mary's home and found she had passed away near her bed. We are grateful she didn't suffer. The fire department, police and medical examiner were called. Her body will be prepared for burial in Burley, ID. Kent
Death certificate:
Mary was 88.5 years old at the time of her death. She died from cardiac arrest due to or as a consequence of hypertrophic cardoimyopathy and mitral regurgitation due to or as a consequence of atrial fibrillation. She died of natural causes.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a primary disease of the myocardium (the muscle of the heart) in which a portion of the myocardium is hypertrophied (thickened) without any obvious cause.It is perhaps best known as a leading cause of sudden cardiac death in young athletes. The occurrence of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a significant cause of sudden unexpected cardiac death in any age group and as a cause of disabling cardiac symptoms. Younger people are likely to have a more severe form of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Wikipedia
Graveside Service, June 29, 2013, 11 AM
Mary was always serving. She was a blessing to her family wherever she went. She took an interest in the lives of her nieces and nephews over the years and later she took an interest in their children. She had a keen mind and was amazingly able to remember the details of our lives. It was thanks to Mary that we found out that Sid and Dawn had a granddaughter (Susan’s daughter Amanda) in Romania while our oldest son was serving. That was a blessing as Susan would share Amanda’s beautiful letters with us when our son’s letters were often just a few lines. I’ll be forever grateful to her for the love and support she showed Cathy during the last years of Cathy’s life.
Mary was always serving. She was a blessing to her family wherever she went. She took an interest in the lives of her nieces and nephews over the years and later she took an interest in their children. She had a keen mind and was amazingly able to remember the details of our lives. It was thanks to Mary that we found out that Sid and Dawn had a granddaughter (Susan’s daughter Amanda) in Romania while our oldest son was serving. That was a blessing as Susan would share Amanda’s beautiful letters with us when our son’s letters were often just a few lines. I’ll be forever grateful to her for the love and support she showed Cathy during the last years of Cathy’s life.
Mary was a wonderful caregiver. I still
remember one day when I was a little boy experiencing her care for me. I
was riding a horse with my brother Brad near Grandma Hope’s house. We
were riding bareback. Brad made me laugh and I laughed so hard I fell off
of the back of the galloping horse and got all scrapped up. I quit
laughing after I hit the ground. I got up crying. After I saw blood
I cried even louder. Mary came out of the house and knew just what
to do. I still remember her comforting me, taking me in the house and
bandaging up my cuts and scrapes. Even as a little boy I was
impressed and still remember how I felt safe as she cared for me in my time of
need. Mary had many of the wonderful qualities of her mother. She
was a wonderful blessing to the whole family as she cared for her mother for
many years. Her service to her mother and extended family over the years
has been great preparation for the blessings that she will now enjoy.
Unmarried Members of the Church (Handbook 2
1.3.3)
“All members, even if they have never married …,
should strive for the ideal of living in an eternal family. This means
preparing to become worthy spouses and loving fathers or mothers. In some cases
these blessings will not be fulfilled until the next life, but the ultimate goal
is the same for all. Faithful members whose circumstances do not allow
them to receive the blessings of eternal marriage and parenthood in this life
will receive all promised blessings in the eternities, provided they keep the
covenants they have made with God.”
Mary has known much of loneliness the past
several years. Several years ago (thanks to Dean and Gloria) she was able
to visit with our family in Mesa, Arizona. It was wonderful to be able to
spend some time with her. I had to travel from Mesa to Tucson to a
funeral and she went with me. She had been in Tucson many years earlier
and wanted to see Tucson again. We had several hours of travel time where
she shared with me some of her fears and anxieties about being alone.
I’ll never forget that. I rejoice in knowing that she will never be alone
ever again! Corby
