Parent Teacher Conferences

We had parent teacher conferences about a week after Lynn's funeral. I found these papers from Cooper and Quinn at conferences. It was good and hard to see that Grandpa was still on their hearts. Such good boys!

Cooper:

Quinn:

 

The Celebration of Lynn Goodwin Bagley

Scott's dad, Lynn Goodwin Bagley, passed away unexpectedly on January 24, 2024. He had a massive heart attack at work, and despite revival attempts, he never regained consciousness. Lynn was months away from retirement, and to say that this shattered many hearts, is a total under statement! 

Scott's parents moved to Storm Lake, Iowa right after the twins were born in 2021. Lynn was offered a position that he couldn't refuse with Tyson. We were able to go visit in 2022, and Grandma and Grandpa came back to Utah to visit many times. We are especially grateful that less than a month before Lynn passed away, the entire family was together in St. George Utah for a family reunion!

As soon as the news of Lynn's passing began to sink in, our number one concern and desire was for someone to be with Marilyn. We were grateful that Scott's oldest brother, Kevin, lives in Nebraska--just 4 hours away. As soon as they heard the news, they hopped in the car and took off for Marilyn and to help with arrangements.

We heard the news early in the morning. Scott was teaching in the classroom, and he had his phone on airplane mode (so he could teach uninterrupted). When his siblings couldn't get a hold of him, Holly called me and told me the news. She asked me to go tell Scott, because she didn't want him to hear from anyone else. I quickly loaded up the three little kids, and I met Scott at the seminary. We hugged and cried for a minute, and then Eric told him to head home--he'd covered the rest of the day.

Scott was home for a short time before the Utah siblings decided to drive and meet at Lynn and Marilyn's house in Moroni. Scott hopped in his car and headed up. They decided it would be best to all be together while trying to figure out the next steps (and I agreed)! 

The hardest part was trying to hold myself emotionally together around the kids. Scott wanted to be here to tell the kids that Grandpa passed away, so I had to keep everything quiet until 8 PM that night. I was asked, more than once, by kids, why I was crying so much. Telling them (and watching them receive the news) was the second hardest thing I had to do that day.

The following two weeks are kind of a blur. The kids were in and out of school. We gave them the option of staying home from school the next day or going to school (and treating life normally). Half of my kids went to school and half of them stayed home. We traveled back and forth to Sanpete often. We saw so many tender mercies and we were showered with so much love! To be honest, this life experience taught me how to mourn and love others in mourning in a different way; hopefully, a better way. 

My kids all processed their grief differently. We are still processing this grief, and we probably will be for a long time. 

Lucy wrote this in her journal...

Quinn's journal...

Macey has some pretty incredible people that surround her. Macey had a really hard time dealing with the news of Grandpa passing. In fact, she is one of my kids that stayed home from school the day after she found out he had passed away. I was so grateful for all of her people that surrounded her and loved her.

The entire Young Women presidency came to visit Macey with a sunshine basket.

The next day, all of Macey's friends showed up at our front door with a giant card, gifts and handmade cookies! So sweet!

We saw so many tender mercies in these days. The first counselor in the bishopric brought dinner for us one of the first nights. I told them that they didn't need to do anything, but they showed up any way...and it worked out perfectly on the night that they did. They brought Sunkist to drink and Snickerdoodles for dessert. If you knew Lynn, you would know that these were favorites of his, and it didn't seem like an accident that these were brought to help take care of us.

On a following day, we went to get the oil changed on our van, and they not only gave us a deal on the service, but they handed Scott a promotional booklet for free pizza from Papa Murphy's Pizza. It's a free pizza every month for a year! It really felt like Grandpa was making sure his grand kids got pizza for the next year!

My sweet ministering sister from our last ward (and we have lived in our new ward for over 2 years) brought us dinner!

We came home one night to find that our door had been heart attacked!

The Carters brought us dinner and dessert one night--chicken pot pie and a chocolate pie! (It might seem insignificant, but it seemed purposeful that Lynn's birthday is on Pi Day (March 14th--3.14) and we were given pie as a meal to feed our family the week of his funeral.

For the next, almost, two weeks we went back and forth to Moroni many times.  For a while, we didn't have a place to sleep all 10 of our family, We also wanted to let our kids go to school as often as we could, so we chose to be close to Monroe and the schools on some days.

A few days after Lynn's passing, Holly and Emily flew out to Iowa, to fly Marilyn home. We didn't want her to fly home by herself, so we were so grateful they could both go! We were so grateful when we could wrap our arms around her and hug her for the first time.

 

Lynn was flown home to Utah on an airplane, and then his body was transported by vehicle to Rassmussen Mortuary in Mt. Pleasant. Kevin, Blair and family were able to fly into Las Vegas and they drove up a few days after Marilyn arrived in Utah. All of the siblings were able to meet together and take care of funeral arrangements at Rassumussen's. 

I think this is the only picture I have to remember this part, but our family got a terrible stomach flu the week of the funeral. I watched it pass around to all of our kids. Scott and I just prayed and prayed that we would be spared until after the funeral. And that's exactly what happened to me. It hit me that Sunday-Monday and I threw up 11 times in a night...it was terrible! And it made me have so much more sympathy for my kids and what they were feeling the week before! (Cooper was the only one really struggling the day of the funeral.) These kids were all so strong!

After traveling back and forth many times, we were offered a place to stay a couple doors down from Lynn and Marilyn's house at the DeMill's house. They opened their home to us so lovingly and willingly, and they will always hold a special place in my heart for doing that for us! Cooper pointed out that the vinyl over their beds was so fitting for the week of the funeral, and he really loved looking at it every night before he went to bed.

Every morning, they left breakfast for us upstairs. The funeral was close to Valentine's Day, so she had Valentine's plates and cups for us to eat our breakfast off of. The kids loved it!

Aunt Blair offered to stay behind to watch a movie with the kids while we helped get the church building ready for the funeral.

There was a viewing held Friday evening, February 2nd. Holly's good friend Tasha offered to come watch all the kids in the nursery of the church. It was such a tender mercy! Scott and I were able to stand in a line to receive family and friends without any of our kids interrupting us. After the viewing, the grand kids all trickled into the viewing area.

The next morning, another shorter viewing was held before his funeral services. This was the view before we left that morning, Kevin and Jake shining their shoes.

When we were all together in December, Lynn mentioned in a conversation that when he died, he wanted all of his kids to take 5 minutes at his funeral and share about how he (Lynn) had influenced them in their lives. At the time, it seemed a little strange that he would mention that wish, but when he passed away less than a month later, immediately, everyone remembered that conversation and they knew that was what he wanted.

It was a lovely funeral service, and a wonderful celebration of his life! We all feel that he left us too early, and our hearts are broken. Scott and I agree that we have learned in a new way how to mourn with others that mourn. Our hearts have been changed forever. Months later and I still look around to find him at family gatherings. He left the greatest gift, though--bits and pieces of him in all of his kids, and a knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ and Plan of Salvation! We know where he is and that we will see him again someday!

Lynn was buried in the Moroni, UT cemetery right after the funeral services. Scott and Cooper were pall bearers.

It was a cold and snowy day. The snow let up for 30 minutes, so we could have the graveside service. There was one giant patch of snow, and it was right on top of Grandma Iris's grave. (We figured she did that just to help entertain these two boys!) Owen and Charlie stomped and played and stayed still, so I could watch them and Harper while Scott participated in the service.

Kevin offered the dedicatory prayer over the grave--to help protect the grave site until the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

Grandma and all of the grand kids.

The Bagley siblings:

Our Bagley family:

We went back to the church for a turkey dinner luncheon. The Moroni 3rd Ward, the local community and turkey community, did such a wonderful job at supporting us on such a difficult day!

We came back to grandma's house, and the twins very quickly fell asleep on Scott. (It had been a long, emotionally taxing few days!)

Oh, and not to mention that this rambunctious 3 year old split her head open at the luncheon. She probably could have used some stitches, but it was a weekend, with no urgent care nearby. Our only option was an ER. (Did I mention we had just gotten Quinn's ER bill for the stitches he got in December just the week before?!) 

Thankfully, Scott's childhood friend, Jordan, was in town for the funeral. He is a PA in St. George, and he offered to run back down to the church and take a look at it for us. Obviously, stitches would be best, but we decided to clean it out really well and we used some liquid bandage on it to get it to stick together. It split back open several times, so we kept adding layers of glue. (Thankfully, it did ended up healing and the glue all came off. She has a scar, but it's totally hidden in her hairline!)