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Our
Last Respects for President Hinckley, Part 2
Text by Maurine Proctor
Photography by Scot Facer Proctor
On Saturday, more than 21,000 people will arrive
here for the services and more than 30 national news outlets will
bulge the media room, while Mitt Romney will halt his campaign at
its most critical moment to pay his respects. All this because we
have admired and adored this prophet.
Click on
photos to enlarge
Around the edge of the Hall of the Prophets
stand bronze busts of those who have lead us.
And President Hinckley’s likeness captures
him well, as casting a bust in metal cannot entirely remove the
twinkle from his countenance.
President Hinckley died Sunday, January 27th,
but true to form, though he was 97, he put in his last full day
of work on the previous Wednesday (January 23), continuing to make
critical decisions that affect the kingdom. On Thursday morning,
he had said, most uncharacteristically, that he just couldn’t
get out of bed. His family gathered on Saturday and he slipped away
the following day. President Hinckley seemed to push past the gradual
weakening of his temporal frame by sheer will.
His son, Clark, (pictured here with his wife,
Kathleen), said, “He had extraordinary self-discipline,”
with an emphasis in his face and gesture that underscored just how
extraordinary that self-discipline really was.
“He started to slow down,” he said,
“just two weeks ago when he started to used a wheel chair
when he went out.” Just two weeks. We remembered that he had
even diminished his cancer —calling it just a bump in the
road — and then adding with humor — but I’m an
old truck.
So the first day of the viewing, in leggings
and hats, people came.
Val Bagley arrived at 5:30 a.m. He had awakened
at 3:45 and just couldn’t go back to sleep, so he came. He
said, “I’ve gone to all the viewings of the prophets
since President Kimball’s. I’ve never met any of the
prophets personally, so this is my chance to have a personal connection.”
Linda Davidson and Rene Perrone, a mother and daughter, arrived
at 4:30 a.m. “We just didn’t want to miss it,”
they said. “We never got to see him in person. We loved the
way he loved people and loved serving.”
Betty Thompson said, “He was a prophet
who related to the world. As members of the Church we love him dearly.
I don’t know anyone who didn’t just love him.”
To keep themselves warm they faltered through one verse of “We
Thank Thee Oh God for a Prophet,” and they teased that they
were reenacting the Martin and Willie handcart companies’
journey.
Those who came later, however, got into the
warmth of the Conference Center immediately, where they waited to
the strains of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, beginning with the full-time
Church employees, who were given their own time from 7 to 9 a.m.
The crowds took the escalators to the Hall of the Prophets.
President Hinckley lay in state in an open coffin,
banked with flowers, with the light streaming in from the windows.
Members teared up seeing that familiar face now stilled.
For much of the early morning, his children
Kathy and Richard Walker, Elder Richard and Jane Hinckley, Virginia
and James Pierce, Clark and Kathleen Hinckley, and Jane and Richard
Dudley and many of their children were present, giving their love
to those passing by in the line.
Debra Jones and Claudia
Ferguson came from the viewing puffy-eyed. They both work on the
25th floor of the Church Office Building in Materials Management
and said, “We can’t imagine the wonderful reunion he
must be having with his wife, Marjorie. He was always so attentive
to her, always making sure she was right by his side, reaching around
to make sure she was included.
Claudia said, “That cane of his, how we’ll
miss it. Sometimes when we drove out of the parking lot at night,
we’d see him in the parking lot and he’d wave his cane
at all the employees.”
Debra said, “I can’t even fathom
his not being with us.” She told of a friend of hers who was
with President Hinckley when he was surveying the land to find the
place for the Palmyra Temple. “She had to run to keep up with
him,” she said.
Click
here to go to Part 3 of Our Last Respects for President Hinckley
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