Family is important and life really is short....

Last Visit with Uncle Dee   by Mike Adams

On the Thanksgiving weekend 2011 Cindy and I with  our exchange daughter

from Mexico, Geny, were touring the sites of southern Utah. On Saturday

morning, November 26, we were heading to Parowan Gap to see the

petroglyphs before heading to Bryce Canyon. I had the feeling that we

should stop and see Uncle Dee. Having written down his phone number from

the motel phonebook, I called him as we headed towards Enoch and it was

busy. I tried a few minutes later although it would have been so easy to

just skip it and  this time he answered and invited us to visit. He guided

us by phone to his address and met us in the front yard inviting us in. We

passed through the kitchen where he had been working on a wood turning

which hadn't developed as he wanted. He then invited us to sit down in the

living room and commenced showing us some of the projects that he had

done. He explained his sawing, gluing, shaping, and finishing technique,

most of which went over my head.

A day or two before he had been at a high priest group service project

pulling some would paneling from a pilefor an elderly widow  and now he

was complaining of some pain in his chest whenever he took a deep breath.

There was no chest wall tenderness and so considering his description of

the pain, I suggested that he monitor it closely and it should gradually

resolved if this was a muscle strain as a sounded. This was bad advice as

it turned out.

Conversation turned to family stories and he told us of his shipboard

experiences in World War II and courting his sweetheart, Cleone, for three

years by mail. Glancing at a photo, he said "I never realized how

beautiful she was."I had told him that we were sorry that we hadn't had

enough notice to be able  to attend her funeral when she died last year.

It was obvious how much Uncle Dee loved Cleone and how much he missed her.

He then told us a story about his father George Q. Wilken from his service

in World War I with an infantry unit that fortunately, avoided battlefield

action. They were coming back on a ship and his lieutenant said that

everything he had assigned to George had turned out easy. He was therefore

going to assign him the dirty job of night shift, shoveling of coal into

the ships boilers. George found that by patching a steam leak he was able

to harness the steam and make an excellent heat source for brewing an

excellent coffee. In addition he had access to Navy chow which was

considerably better than the Army's chow. His lieutenant found him with

his feet up drinking coffee, smoking a cigarette, and eating much better

than his buddies. Again, George's assignment turned out to be a gravy

train. Others, including the leutenant,  begged George to share his

assignment after that. I had never previously heard that Grandpa Wilcken

had a Word of Wisdom problem in his younger days.

Uncle Dee brought out a ceramic crock with unit number and insignia of his

father's unit containing a German military belt buckleand other

memorabilia from his grandfather Charles Henry Wicken including a ribbon

attached to a metal with the inscription, "veteran Indian wars". (If I

remember correctly, his name is on the veterans memorial in Heber Valley

under Echo Canyon War and Black Hawk War.) There was also a badge which

was star shaped and inscribed "Salt Lake City Sheriff". I took pictures of

these two badges. Uncle Dee then told us a story of Charles Henry who was

entrusted with the responsibility of safeguarding a black prisoner who

evidently had gunned down a well loved law enforcement officer in Salt

Lake City who had been in the process of arresting him for being drunk and

disorderly. There was no need for a trial since there were plenty of

witnesses and the dead officer was well liked. Great Grandpa was

transferring his prisoner to a more secure facility when a cowboy rode up,

threw his rope over the prisoners head, and dragged him off to the crowd

who lynched him.  There was not much that Great Grandpa Wilcken could have

done at that point. (This is a somewhat different story from the printed

version.)

I asked about the home in Abraham which Charles Henry built for "Little

Grandma"and Uncle Dee said that there had been a reunion last year in

Delta and they had time to look around for both of his grandparents'

homes. Uncle Dee remembered spending considerable time there as a child in

both of these homes and had previously found remnant foundations. All

trace of these structures are now gone and he couldn't remember exactly

where they had been.

I asked him if he had ever written down these memories and stories. He

stated that he never learned to spell well and his building principal,

when he had worked as an industrial arts teacher, had embarrassed him

considerably. Therefore he never attempted to write very much. He did say

that Jay and Annette had some oil stained writings by Cleone that they

were trying to interpret. He again encouraged us to choose one of several

wooden goblets that he had made from particularly attractive samples of

wood. I took pictures of uncle Dee and the ceramic crock containing the

historic treasures. I asked him to record the stories so that they could

be transcribed. I was impressed at how clear and sharp his memory was and

how much he continued to enjoy handcrafting beautiful projects and his

lifelong appreciation for wood. I had also asked if he knew anything of

the music conductors stand made by his father for the Salt Lake Tabernacle

which was used by the Tabernacle choir director. He said that this had

been transferred to the Assembly Hall on Temple Square and was seen there

about 30 years ago but where it has gone from there is unknown.

We then thanked him and left to pursue our site seeing tour. It was a

wonderful visit and as we proceeded down the road, I remarked to Cindy

that considering Uncle Dee's age and the frequency of our visits to Cedar

City, this might be the last time for us to see him. On Monday, November

28, Cindy called me and told me that later that day on Saturday he was

taken to the hospital with a heart attack and, rather suddenly, on Monday

he passed away to join his lifelong sweetheart.