I moved to Pleasant Grove from a difficult ward in Provo (sadly, they didn’t know how to deal with single mothers).  To my eternal gratitude, I ended up in the Garden 2^nd Ward.  I was pretty gun-shy and scared of revealing much about myself because of the terrible judgment I had endured already.  I expected more of the same, and really struggled with attending church the first time in our new ward.

And Belinda was there. She was so loving to me.  She was my daughter Krista’s YW leader, and is a tremendous light and strength to her.  When Krista was having a tough time and couldn’t see Stan’s love, warmth, and concern (he was our bishop at the time), Belinda saw what was going on and spent extra time with her.  She went the extra mile (or two, or three, or four), but to her it was never any trouble.  She was a truly  Christlike woman.

I didn’t get to spend as much time getting to know her as I would have liked, but it was a great relief to me when this lovely lady, that everyone clearly looked up to and admired, took the time to welcome me, talk to me, walk our babies together (my 2 youngest are the same ages as Jacob and Joshua), share with me the trials of the miscarriages she had suffered, and, well, just be there. 

I never felt “less than” when she was around, like I so often did with women I admired.  I have a hard time loving myself, so I tend to see women that I look up to as being impossibly better than me – but not with Belinda. She was a genuine person, there was nothing fake or feigned about her.   She loved everyone, with a real and genuine love. 

 

Donna Harris