One Amazing Woman!

Leah Tanner Cardon

I will never forget my many visits to Granny and Grandad’s house as a child. In the early morning hours, the door would swing open and in would walk Granny carrying grocery bags full of our favorite things: seven –up with vanilla ice cream, “Granny’s specialties” a.k.a. toast with ham and melted cheese, butterscotch candies for hocus pocus, peanuts, and of course all of the fixings for Dad’s favorite fried chicken.
There were evening rides in the back of Grandad’s el camino, and afternoons in the backyard playing on the close line and cinder block fence. I remember the comfort I felt at Granny’s house and the walls and walls of endless memories, all testaments of a life well lived. I can almost see Grandad sitting on the corner square bar stool eating his eggs, sunny-side up, sopping up the yolk with a piece of toast. I can see him in the garden watering the lawn or pulling weeds. They were a perfect team, each such flawless examples to their posterity.
I have often thought of Granny as a young lady. In a time when girls just didn’t do things like go on missions and attend college, she did. At a time when women married young and stayed in the home, she experienced life, then married and still had eight children to boot! With all of the smarts and talents that she possessed she mothered her children. She cultivated their interests and fostered a love for beautiful things, poetry, music, literature, and the arts. She scrimped and saved so that she could provide opportunities to her children that they would never have otherwise had. She thought outside the box, parenting with creativity and cleverness. She was quick witted and saucy, yet respectable, appropriate, and unassuming. Always there to lend a hand, she led a lifetime of service. Never above the most menial tasks, she worked her entire life for the betterment of others.
Somehow, from her modest home in Farmington New Mexico, she managed to inspire her eight children to explore all facets of life; to taste, create, and experience all of what our world has to offer, all of the while, staying true to the thing most precious above all, a testimony of the Savior. What a legacy she leaves behind. In her own quiet way, she has inspired us all. Her name will always mean dignity, selflessness, humility, intelligence, strength, resilience, faith, and endurance. Leah Tanner Cardon. We love you! Love, Niki