Thirty years ago, I was a 'brainwashed' 16-year-old Mormon who attended the same ward as Lynda (the lady who died), her two sons (the eldest was a year older than me), and her daughter (my age). Her husband was a non-member (as was my father).

Lynda was 'enduring to the end' in terms of her spouse, psychologically clinging to the hope that one day he would join. To the astonishment of many Latter-day Saints in her community, he did a few years ago. He is now a bishop. If only he'd spent some time on the Internet researching 'true' Mormonism before taking the plunge!

When life is viewed through the distorted, 'spiritual' LDS psychological prism, a development such as one's spouse of the past 4+ decades finally joining the 'one, true' church is regarded as a major 'blessing' from 'Heavenly Father' (a.k.a. the great Mormon sky god) for having been 'faithful' all those years.

In the LDS view of life, 'Heavenly Father' can also 'sorely try' people's 'faith' after they've been granted a significant 'blessing.' 'God' telling Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Issac, after waiting decades for male offspring from Sarah, his wife, is the premier example used in the church of the 'mysterious/unfathomable' way in which 'God' operates in people's lives.

After a couple of years of being 'blessed' with a priesthood-holder husband (finally!), Lynda was diagnosed with breast cancer, and ended up having a double masectomy. She was the type of LDS woman who would ask for a priesthood blessing after being diagnosed with cancer. Regardless of what was said (or not said) to her, the evidence of Lynda's life is clear: 'Heavenly Father' did not 'bless' her by taking away her cancer (thus eliminating the need to remove both her breasts). More 'trials and tribulations', right?

That all happened about a year ago. On Thursday, Lynda suffered a heart attack, and went to hospital. This morning she had another - and died. She was 70 or 71. She leaves behind her husband, sons, daughter, and grand-kids.

In the 'true' LDS way of viewing death, Lynda's spirit has returned to God's presence (because she was a 'faithful' Mormon, she bypasses 'spirit prison', like the rest of humanity). At some point in the future, according to 'true' LDS doctrine, her spirit will be reunited with her perfect, resurrected body (flesh and bones only - no blood). After that 'magical' re-fusion, she will be supernaturally transported to the Celestial Kingdom - the LDS version of 'heaven' - where she will live forever in 'exalted glory.' A seemingly joyous ending after passing through 'a veil of tears', if there ever was one.

I don't doubt for a moment that one of the adjectives that will be used to describe Lynda at her church funeral will be "long-suffering." The message will be something like this: "Latter-day Saints: We don't know why Heavenly Father chose to take his beloved daughter Lynda home to him at this time, but she was a righteous church member and great testament to the power of faith. The conversion of her wonderful husband is proof that the Lord can and does work miracles in people's lives. Remain true to your covenants and you too shall be blessed, as was Lynda."

That is one way of interpreting Lynda's life. Another is: "Friends: We gather today to remember a quiet, caring woman who, unfortunately, wasted decades of her life believing in Mormon myths, and who, again unfortunately, provided financial and other types of support to a multi-billion-dollar religious corporation that systematically abused her trust. Let us remember Lynda for the good - albeit naïve - person she was."

The first message is based on 'warm and fuzzy' LDS thinking, which is a function - fundamentally - of human vulnerability. The second message is based on irrefutable truth, which is independent of beliefs, people's feelings, and our innate vulnerability. To many people, 'warm and fuzzy' matters more. Not to hundreds of thousands of people who have discovered the hard truth (for many Latter-day Saints) that the LDS 'faith' is based on a fraud.

Finally, Lynda was of a pre-Internet generation. How fortunate we - people with ready access to the Internet and the knowledge to use it - have been!

Wow, FreeAtLast, thank you for your post.

Thank you for sharing this. A fine tribute to her.

One BIC member of around 70 years of age persisted in asking me why I won't get baptised. She assured me that nothing would affect her as she had a 'testimony' of the restored gospel.

Reluctantly, I started explaining what concerned me and I only got as far as the hat and stone translation. At first she thought it an antimormon lie and explained the Urim and Thumim/Breastplate thing, then I showed her the Russel Nelson talk on her PC and she nearly collapsed, she started crying.

She is a nice person and I might have preferred not to mention it or any other matter had she not been so persistent.

I also felt or noticed that some 'converts' had mental problems or difficulties about life in general.

Of course many converts I saw were Asylum Seekers (enonomic migrants) just naturally playing along because of the help, attention and assistance from the sincere ward members. If I was in their predicament, then I likely would do it myself.

Wonderful tribute to this woman. She was lost...had no knowledge,information, didn't care to gain any in her last days and relied on blessings. Do you think her husband may have known she was not well and joined just to make her happy in her last yrs.? Isn't that quick to make Bishop???Do all her children still believe?

1. To the best of my knowledge, Lynda's husband joined (in his retirement years) prior to her cancer diagnosis. Whether her health had been failing noticeably or not, I don't know. His joining the LDS Church MAY have been a combo. of pleasing her and moving toward the senior/'golden' years. When I visited their home as an older boy and teenager, he was always in the background of family life it seemed (but then, so was my atheist father). He certainly had a quiet personality. The general friendliness/outgoing-ness of the Mormon 'tribe' would have been a real adjustment for him, I think.

2. Given the huge exodus of young men, including RM's, from the Morg in the past 16 years of the Internet, the ranks of men remaining in TSCC has certainly been thinned, so any 'warm body' (male) who is basically 'worthy' will effectively do in terms of filling local priesthood positions, including bishop. I'd wager it was a 'calling' that Lynda's husband never expected to be asked to do. He was retired, so in terms of free time, he had more of it than younger Mormon men in his community.

3. Lynda's eldest son and daughter are 'active' in the Morg (temple-married w/ kids, to the best of my knowledge). I don't know about the youngest son. Looking back, it always seemed to me that he didn't like church nor fit in the local LDS 'tribe' well. He had a learning disability and in Mo-ism, approval 'points' are given by adult Latter-day Saints to young people who do well in church classes, Seminary, etc.

My sister posted this news on facebook and was good friends with her.

My daughter is good friends with her grandson. (her daughters son)

I didn't know her husband recently joined.

Sad news. She was a very nice person.

This is really strange; only 2 days ago I read about the death of a woman I knew when I first joined the church. She wasn't the brightest person I ever met, but she seemed genuinely kind and decent. I was half-tempted to go to her funeral, but feared some of the old ward might be there and I didn't want to be seen. During her life the church seemed to give her psychological comfort; I hope it helped her die a peaceful death.