Tyce's Funeral

The church was filled with family and friends in mismatched socks to celebrate Tyce.

Austin gave the family prayer. He was so honored when Julie text him the week before. 

Austin was driving a few days later, thinking about the prayer, when he had a very distinct impression that Tyce had a message he wanted Austin to give his family:

Brandon, Creighton, Lizzie, and Capri... you will be blessed and strengthened and know that i am near and will be there in times that are joyful and hard. Live up to your commitments. Tristan and Julie, When you smell fresh cut grass, hear the smack of a ball when it hits the glove or the crack of a bat, remember I am near and I am happy. Pray for the people I am teaching that they will accept the gospel of Jesus Christ and attend the temple often to do the work they need to enter into the presence of Jesus Christ and our Father in Heaven, When the laundry is folded and put a way, a pair of mismatched socks that is left behind is a message of I love you.

The funeral was amazing - the nicest funeral Austin said he had ever been to.

Here was the program:

Opening Prayer: Grandpa Randy Waite

Life Sketch: Brandon John

Speakers: Tate Miller (Tyce's best friend since 8th grade)

Julie John (what courage to speak at your son's funeral)

Musical Number: Say a Prayer by lots of friends

Tristan John (who also did amazing)

Closing Prayer: Grandpa LaMar John

Then we went to the cemetery. The funeral home gave a free upgrade to the rolls royce hearse - it was pretty awesome. It was pretty cold outside, but at least the blizzard we woke up to had mostly ended.

Tristan's brother dedicate the grave. It makes the whole plan of salvation seem so much more real when you dedicate the grave until the day of the Resurrection.

There was a cute little mouse running around all of the people who were gathered.

When most of the people had left, Tristan gathered the rest of the people still there and we circled the casket with our arms on each other's shoulders and did the Titan's cheer.

Then we went back to the church for a family luncheon...bless the Relief Society ladies.

It was an amazing day to celebrate Tyce. He affected so many people. We learned so much more about him from all of the people who came and the talks given.

Julie shared 3 miracles:

1. To have had Tyce live in in their family for almost 19 years. They saw so many babies and children at the hospital who likely didn't live very long or not in a normal life

2. Tyce got to attend college. He really wanted to be able to go to college. He got to go for 1 semester and then 3 weeks of the second semester.

3. Julie feels so grateful that Creighton and Lizzie spent Christmas with the Johns so that their last Christmas together was all together.

Julie shared 2 Tyce lessons:

1. Don't quit

2. Love like Tyce

We had three cousins come, which was awesome...Scott Waite, Kristen Gagnon and Kyle Gagnon.

 

Viewing for Tyce

 All of my siblings and also Jill and Hanna drove drove to Idaho Falls from the north, south, east and west through some wintery conditions to celebrate and mourn the passing of my nephew, Tyce John. 

On Friday night, we all met at the funeral home to watch Julie and Tristan's community of support come to the viewing. It was touching to watch the baseball community, church community and neighbors come to support them. He looked good - the funeral home did a really good job. Lots of people sent beautiful flowers. Brandon, Tyce's brother, was in charge of setting up some displays that represent Tyce. Julie and Tristan said they wouldn't have brought quite so many things, but they wanted to let Brandon do it. It turned out awesome...hats, bats, awards, hobbies, etc.In Tyce's obituary, they invited anyone coming to the funeral to wear mismatched socks in honor of Tyce, who often wore mismatched socks because he just couldn't be bothered to find a match. It was pretty cool to see so many people, old and young, coming in mismatched socks.

When we watched Tyce's friends come into the room, they were so teary. It was touching.

There was a bouquet of flowers from USU Nursing program - for Creighton. BYU-Idaho also sent a big bouquet, since Tyce was a current student there. He had even gone to class two days before he died.

My Aunt Mary and Aunt Roseanne surprised my mom and came. Roseanne flew to Boise and drove over with Mary.

There was a cute family with a ton of kids all wearing mismatched socks, so I asked if I could take their picture. It turns out that they were neighbor's to Julie in Julie's old house, and the mom is James' Teichert's cousin. When I told her I was from Canada, she said, wait - did your daughter marry a Teichert? I am a Teichert."

Tristan had a neighbor growing up named Jim Craig, whose wife has died so he works at the funeral home for something to do. As soon as he heard about Tyce's death, he text the funeral home director three times to volunteer to go and pick up Tyce's body from Salt Lake. Julie said, he will be in good hands. Then he was helping at the viewing, giving out drinks of water. I talked to him and asked him about it, and he said he wanted to help and also do it for free to help the John family that he loves.

My siblings all saw a few people that we knew from high school, so it was a little reunion.

Some funny moments:

-Sir, I think you are at the wrong viewing. The Beasleys are in the other room.

-Jeanette - I took the red eye flight home from Hawaii and got a red eye.  She got sand in her eye and broke some blood vessels, and her eye was sooo red. She wore fake glasses to try and disguise it.

-There was a bouquet of flowers addressed to Brandon from the Tadd Auto Group. We asked Brandon what the connection was, and he said that he had no idea. He hadn't ever bought a car there or worked there. They even looked on the website to see if he knew any of the salesman...just a random act of kindness it seems.

Blessing of Charlotte

Charlotte was blessed by Larsen in the same blessing dress that Jill, Hanna, Lucy and Carly were all blessed in.

The Melchizedek Priesthood holders in the circle to bless Charlotte:

Larsen Perkins

Austin Nunn

Ralph Perkins

Don Noyes

Jake Perkins

McKay Magoon

Jason Dalton

Charlotte Dawn Perkins

You are very special in God's eyes, and He has big plans for you. 

Your family also loves you very much.

We bless you with all of the virtues of a righteous young woman.

Call upon Christ your whole life - build a strong foundation on Christ.

We bless you to be healthy and strong.

You will be a blessing to all of those around you.

We love you and bless you.

Then we had a nice lunch at the Perkin's restaurant, Cowboy Smokehouse. 

Austin and Carly were excited to meet Charlotte. We had a fun and short visit.

We also had quite the adventure getting to Panguitch. We drove to Kalispell to fly to Las Vegas. We made it through security and were waiting for the incoming plane when they announced that it was too foggy for the plane to land. The plane flew to Boise and then came back 4 hours later. Then they told us the flight crew had reached their hours for the day and the flight would take off the next day. So we checked into a hotel and waited until the plane took off 15 hours later. We eventually made it to Las Vegas, rented a car and got to Jill's house.

Everything went better on our flight back - we made it to Kalispell on time. Then we had to drive home so we could get Carly back to basketball practice the next day. There had been a snow storm and Austin's mom text him and said she would pay for our hotel room in Kalispell and that it was irresponsible and stubborn to drive home that night. We made it with no problems, although we were a little tired the next day.

 

Charlotte Dawn Perkins

Jill's due date was January 6, but she had put it into the universe that she wanted to have her baby on December 29. She had contractions starting about December 20, but no labor yet. She even went to the hospital on Christmas afternoon, but they said she wasn't ready and sent her home.

On Sunday December 29, she felt like something wasn't good and she hadn't felt the baby move for a couple hours so they went in. They watched her for a couple hours, and then they were worried about the baby's heart rate so they decided to take the baby by c-section.

We started praying and asked our families to pray also. A very two long hours later, Larsen sent a picture and said a very mad baby was born and everything was good with Jill and the baby.

Charlotte Dawn Perkins was born on December 29.

Larsen had the week off of work and Larsen's mom was home on Christmas break, so I decided not to go down until the next week.

It was such a fun week meeting Charlotte, hanging out with Will, and helping Jill.

My car started ticking on the way down. I took it to the mechanic in Panguitch, and they couldn't really figure out was wrong and thought I should make it home. I made it 20 miles before Great Falls, and then something in the engine blew up. Austin had to come and get me. He counted the miracles, which was so much better than feeling bad for myself or being mad.