Posted by:
westernwillows
(
)
Date: September 12, 2018 05:30PM
I was a YW in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Most of our activities were the same old drivel, but one stuck with me, almost 20 years later.
I grew up in a heavily Mormon area outside of Utah, and my ward had a lot of widows who sat alone during Sacrament Meeting, and the very kind-hearted YW president decided this wasn't right. She assigned a "Grandma" to each YW and we were to sit with them during sacrament meeting, invite them to some YW activities and generally build a relationship with them.
My "Grandma" was a very sweet woman who lived across the street from my school bus stop so I would pop in to visit her a couple times a week. My mom was her visiting teacher, and she really became part of our family. She taught me to quilt and bake and I really enjoyed her company. She died right before I graduated from high school. Some of the other girls in my ward had similar experiences with other widows, and this stands out as one of the best parts of growing up Mormon (maybe the only good part other than I am a confident public speaker from all of the Sacrament Meeting talks I had to give).
Is my ward the only one that did this? I left the church shortly after my high school graduation, but I visit wards occasionally and I hate how widows and singles are socially forced to sit by themselves.