Our Message
Joan Ruth Smith Stout passed away on September 5, 2007. She was my beloved mother and grandmother of the beautiful girls pictured to the right, Kim, Tiffany, Tara, Chelane, Stephanie, Tristen, Sara, Telisa, Mikel, Jenny and Ashling. My mother died due to complications from malnourishment, or in other words, an eating disorder. I believe it started in her teens and she was completely unaware of the insidious disease that took route in her mind. She was somehow blessed to give birth to four children, three boys and a girl. Joan loved her children with devotion and passion even though much of the time, she felt poorly. Stomach problems, headaches and heart palpitations were a daily occurrence for her. As her only daughter, I was oblivious to her plight until my very own sweet daughter started on that same journey in her teens. By then my mom had been suffering from her eating disorder for a good fifty years, and there was no redirecting her thoughts. Unfortunately for me, I was angry for a while when I realized that the route of all her illnesses was through lack of nutrition. That was shameful on my part, and I am sure that only added to my mom's illness. I hope she knows now how foolish I was. However, through the journey of Telisa's eating disorder, the girls in our family have learned much, especially Telisa! It is for this reason that we collectively, as Joan's Girls, are choosing to send the message out to the world of what real beautiful bodies need to support good physical and mental health!!!!!!! We watch with horror the unhealthy and unattractive images on TV, Movies, Magazines etc. We witness some of our dear friends struggle with body image issues, and frankly we are sick of the comparing and obsessing over one's size versus one's health!! We believe in good health, we believe in eating the food provided for us by our Heavenly Father, we believe in balance and moderation, we believe in exercise in moderation, we also believe the best exercise is done while serving others, we believe that God created many types of bodies and we thank Him for that! We believe in modesty and we believe that our bodies are a gift from Heavenly Father! We believe that true beauty comes from within. All of Joan's granddaughters are true beauties. Our legacy to her will be our commitment to the TRUTH of what is beautiful and praiseworthy. We seek after these things. We will strive for good health and the truth in all we do!
5 comments:
That's a great idea Tiff! I'll make sure he reads them all!!
One of my favorite memories is when I was in High School and attended early morning seminary, 90% of the time Dad drove me and my giggly friends, Sandy Homer and Jolene Law to Seminary at 6:30 am. We laughed all the way to the church!! Sandy always called my dad, "Handsome Harold"! He loved it!
I also cherish the memory of when Dad and I were in the musical "Music Man" together! That was beyond fun!
When I was feeling blue because all my friends had boyfriends and I didn't, my dad always assured me that there was some lucky young man walking around out there just waiting for me. (He was right!!)
Great idea Tiff! He loves to hear those stories.
Tiff what a great idea! I've been thinking so much about him and know I need to stay in better touch so that he knows he is loved! I'll get right on that! xo
That is a nice idea. I hope he likes it.
Tiff love that post, I will get right on it.
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