21. A Child's Christmas Prayer
The Christmas of 1939, here in St. George, Utah, was going to be quite humble at our house. My father had been in World War I and had suffered off and on with "shell shock", which now is called Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. He had been in the Veteran's hospital in Salt Lake City during the year, and my mother, Ruth, had given birth to my sister, Mavis, on December 1st. In those days, mothers stayed down much longer with a difficult birth. My mother had been allowed to turn over in bed on the 10th day, and got up on the 17th day, so Christmas found her very weak. My grandmother, Ruth’s mother, was living with our small family, and helping after the new baby. She stayed with us each winter and was a Temple Ordinance worker in the St. George Temple, spending her summers in the cool town of Panguitch, near the beautiful Bryce Canyon in Utah. My parents had followed the admonition found in Doctrine and Covenants section 68, verse 28: "And they shall als