Samson. My Beloved Friend

My mom was working and going to school. And she had a boyfriend. This boyfriend of hers we had known and he was just friends with my mom when we lived in Salt Lake City, after living in Atz and Nedra Kiltcher's basement apartment but right before we moved to Hawaii. His name was D.Y. Now, they were just friends and writing to each other back and forth while we were living in Hawaii, and when we moved back from Hawaii my mom was dating him. Us girls really really liked him a lot. He was a sweet guy, really tall. Taller than my birth father, and a basketball player for one of the bigger universities in Utah.

He spoke Swedish and German and Norwegian and he had a baritone voice when he sang. He laughed a lot and would pretend he was a bear. Very great guy. We were sure Danae and I, were sure that mom would marry this guy. He was a keeper. In the meantime, what I rarely mentioned before was my mom's family.

   My mom was the eldest of 9 kids. One child died at 5 months old, when my mom was probably 5 or 6. So, I never knew her. My mom have a younger sister that was younger than her, we lived with her in California. We also had uncles. Four of them. They were awesome. Then, we had two more aunts. They would come see us a lot. My uncle when I was 5  years old we were living in Salt Lake, He would come see us and go skiing. He once tried to take my mom. My mom hated skiing so much she ended up walking down the hill. She laughs about it now but she did not back then.

My  uncles and aunts would come visit and stay a few days and sometimes we would go live with my uncles and aunts for all summer. I recall many stories with which I will have to share, but I will just share the story of my uncles meeting James.

 Now,D,afew times visited my Grandma and Grandpa's house. They lived in La Sal, Utah. La Sal is a tiny place, and it is near Moab. I loved going there because my uncles would take me to the Arches. I would climb and crawl around those arches with my aunts. Rae, and Athena. They were so much fun and my uncles and aunts were like my brothers and sisters to me. We had a huge blast. Well, my mom's family lived in country in La Sal and country in Utah is different in different places. La Sal was red desert and High Plateau. Red Mountain Rock and Sand Rocks all over. Southern Utah is where many many of the Great Western Films were made, and Jimmy Stuart filmed about 96% of all his Cowboy Westerns in Southern Utah,If not ll. Well, La Sal was surrounded by Red Sand, the ground was very different with browns, blues, and purples and mostly red. My Grandpa had a horse name Dynamite. He was a black horse and I was allowed to ride him when my uncles were with me. Dynamite lived by his name was was a little flighty but, I loved him Silver Dollar was another horse they had, I remember, and our sweet horse, Cinnamon had returned to the Great Father Sky, which broke my heart, but knowing he would be able to eat apples everyday gave me hope that I would once again see Cinnamon and ride him like I did when I was three.

  Now, John would take me there for a couple of weeks. He would drive me there to La Sal, drop me off and I would spend lots of time with my uncles and aunts. My grandpa had a sweet dog. I can not recall her nae right now, but she had puppies and one day, I grew so found of the fattest biggest puppy I pleaded with my grandpa if I could keep him on the farm with him and he could be mine. To my delight and joy, my grandpa, uncles aunts and grandma all said Yes. He was so big and huge paws. He was a mighty dog and I named him Samson. Samson and I would go for what seemed to be hours, in the country fields of La Sal. We would watch the rabbits and Samson would try to chase them. Samson was huge. Samson was on his hind legs 6' 8" tall because he was the exact height as my mom's boyfriend, John. Now, Samson was half Black Lab and Half St Bernard. He was all black but on his neck he had a small speck of white. He had the biggest paws I had ever seen on a dog, and I have seen hundreds.

  He had the saliva glands of a St Bernard and a heart of a puppy. He thought he was a puppy. That is no doubt his mother's black lab spirit. Oh how I loved Samson and I would go digging out in the Country. I would look for bottles, old coins, Arrow heads. One day, while out digging, a thunder storm was approaching. not too fast. clouds were rolling slowly in and I knew in Southern Utah and Eastern Utah, Flash Floods came swift. My grandpa taught me how to watch for storms. He would always say you can smell a storm coming. He was right. You could. I also knew that the storm was coming and it started getting late because normally coyotes would howl and yip at night but I hardly ever heard nor saw them in the day. Strange... I saw one. I wanted to run but my uncle Paul, always said to not run and keep really still because they might want to catch you. They liked to chase. So, I sat frozen and not a second sooner did Samson jump up, ran faster than lightening and chase down the coyote but not only did he chase down the coyote, and caught it, I started running back home. I knew I did not have to worry about Samson. I knew it was his way of protecting me. A couple seconds, I looked back... I heard a yelp. I thought, What do I do. I saw Old Yeller and was scared tat what happened to Old Yeller would happen to Samson. But I saw Samson coming back... Not even a scratch on him!!! We hurried home and before I got home I was tired, I laid myself on Samson and Samson carried me back home to safety on his back, the size of a pony. Samson did eat Rabbit, which made me sad but one day my Uncle Ian explained it was sad, but that the bunnies were eating their garden and Samson protected our food. Uncle Ian was and still is my dearest most beloved uncle. However,I adore all my uncles with much love.

Sadly, I do not know what happened to my pictures of me in Southern Utah in those Days. more on that later, But I know that I have pictures of me and Samson out there somewhere. I hope my Grandpa is keeping them safe.

My uncle and me. Riding Cinnamon