Saturday, July 11th
From Gordon B. Hinckley’s biography, on his Dad (Bryant Hinckley) remarrying after his Mother (Ada) died:
Perhaps Gordon assumed that life would go on as usual, with him shouldering some of the burden at home and helping shepherd his younger brothers and sisters along. So he wasn’t prepared for the day, early in 1932, when Bryant called his children together and announced that he was going to marry again. His intended was May Green, the office manager at the Salt Lake Clinic. May was a woman of great capacity, a hard worker with an infectious sense of humor. But as far as Gordon was concerned, her virtues were irrelevant. He was determined to preserve his mother’s memory and upset that his father was prepared to replace her.
When Bryant announced his intentions to his children, the resulting silence was deafening. He was so nervous that he shook visibly at the encounter. “In our wildest dreams,” Ramona said, “I don’t think we imagined Father would remarry. We just couldn’t imagine him with anyone but Mother.” A couple of nights later Bryant returned home late to find Gordon in the library studying for finals. Gordon was obviously still troubled, for when Bryant tried to initiate a conversation he made a remark that stirred up the issue again. Their discussion was becoming emotional when Bryant finally asked his son, “Do you want me to grow old alone? Do you want your sisters to feel responsible for taking care of me when I get to be an old man?”
He reassured Gordon that he loved Ada dearly and that his feelings for her would never fade. But he also acknowledged how lonely his existence would be if he were forced to live the rest of his life in solitude. Father and son talked into the night, and Gordon’s heart softened as he saw in a new light how devastating his mother’s death had been for his father.
On February 22, 1932, Bryant married May, who, as a young woman, had been promised in her patriarchal blessing that she would marry and be a mother to many children. At first there were tensions and awkward moments between the children and their new stepmother. May didn’t do things the way Ada had, and it was difficult for the children to see their father show affection to anyone other than their mother. But in time Aunt May—as the children called her—won a place in their hearts. From the outset she made it clear that she had no intention of trying to replace Ada, and that she wanted only to make her own place.
May was sensitive to the fact that her husband had been happily married twice before and that Christine’s and Ada’s children needed the assurance that their mothers had not been forgotten. In time, Gordon and his brothers and sisters grew to love the woman who so eagerly loved them. “We were not little children, but she took hold of [our] family, not in any officious way,” Gordon later said. “I don’t know that it was easy for her to step into our family, but she did it well. We all respected her. We all loved her.”
--I totally support your decision.
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