September 22, 1980

 Dear Clyde and Virginia,

 Just a note to send along with these family pictures. As you can see they came out very good. We have some for everyone but wanted to get yours right out to you.
I've said it before and I'll say it again — the Clyde A. Smith family has got to be one of the choice families in the Church. Not only are they all (both your children and their spouses) active in the church they have compiled an outstanding record in other areas as well. Do you realize that your 9 sons and daughters and their 9 spouses have compiled approx 15 total years spent in the mission fields of the church and approx. 55 years spent in college. Quite a record to be proud of. 
One other thing — they're all good looking too — must be their Mom and Dad. 
Clyde, I understand you are feeling better that — pleases Carolyn and I. Our prayers and thoughts are always with you. We hope you had a good birthday and didn't wear out your fancy gift to quick. 
Once again, let me tell you how much we enjoyed having you here this August. Carolyn couldn't have made it without your help Virginia, and your good spirit and sense of humor, Clyde — you helped lift all of our spirits in a very hectic month. 
We love you both and I want you to know that even though I don't talk on the telephone much I get full reports from Carolyn and my love is sincere for you both. I appreciate what you do for us and all you stand for. You are good, kind and loving parents and even though parents and children (young and old alike) sometimes disagree on things — believe me —- your children, all nine of them love and respect their parents more than you may ever know. They are all always concerned about you both — they are concerned about your health, your future and your well-being and happiness. 
For the great work you have done on this earth — in this life — you will reap great rewards in the here-after, I'm sure. I'm sure that the good Lord has looked down at your accomplishments and your life and said, "It is good, my faithful servants."
Excuse me for getting carried away. I don't write often but my mind thinks many things which I don't always get put down on paper. This time I decided to put it down because I have thought it often and I wanted to share my thoughts with you. 
Clyde, I know that you have sometimes felt like you haven't done everything in life that you thought you should but believe me you have got to be one of the choice fathers and husbands around. You can be proud of your life and accomplishments. 
We all love you deeply — thanks for being such a outstanding father-in-law and thanks for sharing your sense of humor and your life and family with me over the last 25 years. 
Your life will continue to bring happiness to all of us as we enjoy being around you. by all of us — I mean not only my family but all of your children and their families as well. 

Virginia, in so many ways you have reminded me of my very dear Grandmother Grover (Dad's mother). She was a lady with nine children also. She was concerned about her family all the days of her life. She was a Stake R.S. President for years and a temple worker. She was a very spiritual lady that loved her family and the Gospel deeply. Missions and education were always important parts of their children to participate in. I could go on. 
You see, Virginia, there are so many similarities in the two of you. You are most certainly a very spiritual and loving mother and wife. You too should be proud of your accomplishments and your outstanding family. Down into the valley of death did you go to bear and give birth to 9 choice little souls that you nurtured, guided, counseled, and raised at great sacrifice to yourself in order that they each did not go without. These 9 little souls have grown to be 5 beautiful and charming mature women. They are all strong and spiritual women like their mother taught them to be. Specially am I thankful for your first-born and your #1 daughter. As you might know with-out her I would be nothing. She has helped carry me through some very trying and tuff times. She has always been one to sacrifice herself in order to make someone else happy — this is the case whether it is her husband, child, co-worker or associate. She thrives on seeing other people happy — be it associate or family. She has the warmth and graciousness of her mother. She has the skills of both her mother and father - she has the sense of humor and kindness of her father. I love my wife so dearly and the family the two of us have been blessed with. 
When it comes right down to it though without you Clyde and Virginia, I wouldn't have his choice spirit and person to share my life with — Thanks for that!

 These 9 little souls you have brought into this world also include 4 very handsome, good men. They are all four men in the world and church that make this a better place to live in. They too are concerned for their fellow man-kind and have done well in their lives as they were taught by their Mother and Father. I am proud to call any of them my brother — they are all neat people!
Yes, I am and always have from 1955 on — been proud of all of your. A man couldn't ask for a choicer Mother and Father-in-law and I love you both. I loved all the family when I use to take them to the park and other places when they were little and even now as they are all grown mature men and women. 
Look at the picture — you can see in their faces what I mean. They all radiate a good warm glow about them.
I guess I got carried away but I wanted to write you for quite sometime now and the pictures gave me the insensitive to do it.

Love ya loads
Cornell

 p.s. This turned out to be more than just a note as I said when I started.

Dear Carolyn,

 The hardest part of writing to you in trying to get started and started right. I don't know exactly what to say or how to say it but I have really got a lot on my mind.

 Do you remember what happened on Feb. 23, and then on the 25th. Those were the days, the start of everything. Really, I guess I should say that the 14th, 15th, and 16th, were the actual start of it all. How thankful I am for that band tour because it did me a favor nothing else could duplicate. It was this band tour that made me see the twinkling bright eyes of a cute little redhead sitting in the corner of the back seat of my fathers bus. After I had ridden clear to Salt Lake City with this bright eyed chap sitting right behind me I could see something, I wasn't positive what it was at first but I am now, in this girl that I have never seen duplicated in any girl and take it from me it was all very, very good. It was these things that made me decide to investigate the situation and that is exactly what I did. I have never been sorry for it since and never will. That small and sincere acquaintance we had at first has frown into something big and beautiful and I just hope and pray that that small acquaintance will continue to grow into something even bigger and more beautiful than it already is.

 Each night when I take you home I hate to leave, even if it is for only a few hours, like everything because you are so tender, sweet, and kind to everyone that it makes it very hard for young men like myself to tear themselves away from things of that nature. Carolyn, the cleanliness and purity of your very good and gracious heart is incomparable. It is these beautiful features about you that make you so well loved and admired by all who associate with you.  Your wonderful parents and brothers and sisters can really be proud of their oldest daughter and sister because it is girls like yourself that make this such a gold ol' world to live in.

     "I have never been as satisfied and happy with a family in all my life as I was with yours that first Sunday we went to your place and spent the day. I enjoyed myself so much and was so happy when I got home that night that honestly, I was just about in tears. I just love everyone of them from your good parents all the way down to Sterrling.  If they think one-fourth as much good of me as I think of them, I could be happy. Carolyn you are so fortunate and lucky in so many ways I just hope that the best of everything will always be yours as I can't think of a more deserving soul in all this little ol' world of ours I could go on for ages I think but it looks like the room is just about vanished. May our Father in Heaven always bless you in all your undertakings. You are a guiding light to all of us. Be good and I'll be seeing plenty of you this summer if I have anything to do with it. 

   With all my love,
     Cornell

10/19/01

"The driftwood that lays upon a beach is worn to smooth beauty as much by the waves that return to the sea as those that rushed to the shore." ~ Ana

Seven years ago today, we buried my father.  They say that in seven years, every cell of your body had regenerated itself, so very literally, you are not the same person you were then.  I would have to concur.  I am not the same person, I've lost some innocence.  I'm gained some knowledge, and I've learned, that everything I thought I knew, only has led me to more questions than I ever thought possible.  

I was my daddy's girl.  He was a bear of a man, and prouder than a daughter, no man could be.  He was there, still camera ready and missing half the shows as I tap danced, sang, played the piano and acted my way through grammar, Jr and High school.  

He and I fought like cats and dogs, but we were both quick to burn, and quicker to forgive.   I have much to thank him for.  He was not the perfect father, then again, perhaps he was.  Perhaps his foibles, allows me to accept mine. Perhaps his temper, taught me to mold mine into something manageable.  Perhaps his quick judgement, taught me to never judge on sight.  I know that his open heart, allowed me to be open to the world.  I know that his fierce love of family, and of me, built my confidence to a level that nothing outside could take it apart like a fractured Lego castle.  

Everyone who we allow into our hearts, changes us in some way.  I am too, being honed by the waves on my California beach. . . softened by adversity, just as I'm strengthened by its crashing against my stubbornness.  People have come into my life, and people have gone out of it.  All of them have left their marks.  Some have brought with them treasures from a sea I'll never experience.  Some have taken from me, bits that I miss when I pause to consider it.  A small and rare few, have remained close.  Souls that resonate as the echo of my conch harmonizes with their own.  I'd not change a single moment of my life thus far.  

Thank you Dad, for letting me share the beach with you, perhaps you wouldn't mind me taking off my shoes, and dabbling our toes in some of that oh so refining rush of salt and sea and . . . see.  

I'm becoming. . . more than I was, and less than I'll be.

Marsha Grover Steed