It has often been said of Belinda that she can make friends with a bum on the street as easily as with dignitaries and other important people.  This is true—at times in my life I was unemployed, discouraged, and with a loss of my dignity felt like a bum on the street, at other times I have been at the top of my game and in the company of pretty important people—and either way she has loved me and treated me just the same.  She truly exemplified the statement in Rudyard Kipling's "If", "If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch."

In 2007, I had just finished my first year of law school, and I moved myself and family of 8 from Omaha, Nebraska with the slim hope (but with a feeling) that I would be able to transfer to the University of Utah's law school.  A couple of weeks before classes started I learned I was denied (this was the fourth year I had been rejected by the University of Utah).  I was devastated, burdened with debt, without a job to support a young family, in temporary housing, and my wife was working 5 12-hour shifts a week just to help us survive.  Shortly thereafter, Belinda and Stan invited me and my family to go 4-wheeling and rafting with them.  We had a large family, so we were not usually invited to do activities with other families.  For one day they allowed me to relax and have fun with them and forget about all my discouragements and failures.  I had the time of my life.  They gave me a break from my problems, which allowed me to have a fresh perspective. 

Eventually, I did overcome that episode of failure—I found a job to support my family and transferred to the University of Utah the next year and graduated in the top 20% of my class.  Now, I practice as a patent attorney and converse and work with some of the brightest minds in the world on their inventions.  I have acquired some success in my profession and personal life.  Belinda doesn't really care about how important I may have become, she just still loves me for the same brother she always had.  It doesn't matter if I am struggling or excited.  When I am struggling, she listens to me and prays for me.  When I am excited, she listens to me and encourages me on.  Regardless, we always have a great conversation, and I walk away with a new perspective. 

I am not really sure I really understood Belinda, and I am not sure she really understood me, but that was never a requirement for us to have heart-to-heart talks.  She was accepting of me, and she was real with me.  Belinda allowed me to feel like a big brother, even though I was always her younger brother.  She did not treat me like the little brother.  She even allowed me to video the birth of her first daughter, Brittney, when I was a senior in high school—wow, that is courage.

I could never figure out how Belinda did arithmetic when it came to service.  She seemed to always remember what you did for her, but had amnesia when it came to what she did for you.  This last spring, I helped Stan and Joshua build their pine wood derby car.  Luckily, the car turned out well, and Joshua won the derby.  She was grateful and wanted to do something for us.  I assured her that she did not owe us anything.  I did not do anything that she would not have done for me or had already done for me.  Belinda insisted (I've learned not to fight her on this), so I indicated that I wouldn't mind having some eggs from her chickens.  Apparently that was not good enough and Stan and Belinda took Amanda (my wife) and I out to dinner at Tepanyaki's Japanese Steak House (which is not a cheap restaurant).  We thoroughly enjoyed our time with them, as we usually do.  And she still gave us the eggs.  Last month when I went to pick up eggs, she was so sweet when she said, "When will I have repaid you and stop owing you eggs?"  I told her I never thought she owed me a debt.  I was glad to pay for the eggs again.  She forgot about all those dinners and parties at her house and all the service she did for me.

Belinda is irreplaceable to me.  She was a great sister to me.  Although my life will go on and I will talk with countless other people in my life, I will miss the love I felt from Belinda, I will miss conversations we had together, and I will miss her perspective.  I look forward to the day when I can embrace her again, talk to her again, and see her smiling face.  I love you Belinda, Stan, Joshua, Jacob, Benson, Spencer, Brittney, Angela, Randy, John, Little Belinda, Katie Marie, Caleb, Oliver, and Alvin.

Love, your brother, David Wilding