I, Arminta (Minnie) Pitcher Harger, was born April 21,1941 in Bergeson's Maternity Home in Lewiston, Utah. I was the third daughter of Elton Brown and Mary Fife Pitcher. The story goes that the first time Uncle DeConn came to our home after I was born he said, "She's just a little Minnie Bug" and the name stuck. I don't remember very many times Uncle Conn addressing me as anything but Minnie Bug.

Our family lived upstairs in the old Pitcher family home in Cornish, with Uncle Val and Aunt Doris living downstairs with Grandma Pitcher. I remember Grandma Pitcher sitting in the kitchen in her old wooden rocking chair sharing her breakfast with us kids. She had the sweetest face and the softest lap! I was five years old when Grandma Pitcher died and I remember going to Aunt Maggie's house for the viewing.

One day my brothers and sisters and I were playing ring-around-the-rosies around the coal stove used for heating. Somehow in the fun and excitement of the game, my right arm got pressed up against the stove. Aunt Doris came up and treated and bandaged my arm and then came daily to clean and redress the burn. We usually had to soak the bandage off, so I'd sit on the drain board of the kitchen sink with my arm in warm water in the dishpan. I can't remember what year it was, but Uncle Val and Aunt Doris had built their new house across the road up on the hill and our family had the whole house.

We had such a wonderful childhood growing up there on "Pitcher Hill." Our home was filled with love, laughter and song! Daddy loved to sing and whistle. Our Mother would play the old pump organ upstairs in one of the spare rooms. She played by ear and could play anything and sing harmony to any song. Aunt Martha (Fife) told us that when she and Mother had to work out in the fields as girls, they would sing all the popular songs and hymns all day long to make the time pass faster. She said that Mother taught her to sing the alto to "Now Let Us Rejoice" and she still sings the alto to that hymn.

Mother was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease as a teenager. Her condition became worse as the years went on, but she was always lots of fun and a good teacher. I remember standing on a chair helping her cook and make bread. I know that we struggled as a family, but most all of my childhood memories are fond and happy. We were so close and have remained so throughout our lives. Being born into this family has always been a tremendous blessing in my life.

We helped with the milking, carrying the milk into the milk house and pouring it through the strainer into the milk can. We washed the milkers and helped keep the barn clean. We worked out in the fields as we grew a little older, thinning and hoeing sugar beets. One day when I was about 11 or 12, we were working down in the field below the canal down where the old pump used to be. It was so hot. My head started to ache and I was getting sick to my stomach. I finally told the other kids that I had to go home. So I started off. I remember passing out and waking up two or three times before I made it to the back yard and Daddy found me out there. He carried me into the house and called the doctor and the elders. I don't know if they thought I was going to die, but I sure thought I would. I remember the doctor having me drink salt water and I remember Daddy giving me a blessing. I was so worried that I would not be able to participate in our dance recital a couple of days away. Daddy blessed me that I would be able to dance at the recital and I did. I remember Daddy giving us blessings regularly. I also remember kneeling around Mother's sick bed every so often while Daddy gave her a blessing. I'm so thankful for the testimony I gained at an early age of the power of prayer and the power of the priesthood.

I remember once having to give a 21/2 minute talk. I had talked with Daddy about it and he suggested that I go up and find a book in the bookcase and read for a while and decide for myself. I found the pamphlet put out by the church of the Joseph Smith story. I read it and remember the warm, beautiful feeling that I got as I read that day upstairs sitting on the bedroom floor. I knew the story was true. I knew that Joseph Smith had gone to the grove to pray and that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him. I have always been thankful for the wise counsel of Daddy that day. I think he knew that I would gain my own testimony of the gospel that day. I'm not so sure that he knew which book I would choose, I just know that he was inspired to send me to find a talk for myself.

As kids we hiked the hills and played in the creek above Uncle Val's house. We found beautiful, smooth rocks and water falls and we would slide down the big rocks into the water. The sky was so blue and life was WONDERFUL! We would always cut a big old cedar tree at Christmas. Sometimes we'd get carried away and bring one home that was so big it wouldn't go through the door. I remember one time we brought this HUGE tree home and finally got it in the house and on a stand. We stood it up and got it decorated, but in the night it came down with a terrible crash.

We all went to school in the old Cornish school -1st 2nd and 3rd grades in one room and 4th, 5t, and 6 in another. As I recall, we all loved school (well maybe not the boys so much.) Maybe it was just because it gave us time to be with our friends (although my sister, Carol, was always my best friend - and actually she still is) and it got us out of work. I remember getting snowed in often during the wintertime and have to ride in the old sleigh pulled by a team of horses down to the end of the lane with the milk cans. A few times we stayed down with Aunt Maggie or other relatives until the roads were cleared. My friend Margaret DeLeeuw moved to Cornish when we were in 3rd grade. She is sill a good friend and we get together regularly to reminisce.

Other things I remember during that time were visiting our Aunt Gladys and Uncle Wallace Jensen on Sundays up in Preston and walking over to the Polar Bear for ice cream; spending Thanksgiving at Aunt Jean and Uncle Reed Stockdale's in Franklin with lots of Mother's family. We loved those get togethers. Aunt Jean had a player piano and we'd all gather around and sing our hearts out. We also had a few family reunions at Aunt Jean's. Good, happy times. We picked beans up in Weston with Margaret and Marilyn DeLeeuw, the Cottle girls and Carolyn Kent in the fall to earn money for school clothes and made some good friends in the process.

Sometimes on Sundays we would go visit the sick or just to visit relatives - like over to Clarkston to visit Vic and Velda Rasmussen and their family. Daddy had a cousin in Smithfield who had rheumatoid arthritis and we would visit her and taker her malts. I remember my sisters and I going to Richmond to Brother Pond to get our patriarchal blessings when I was thirteen.

When Carol and I were in Jr. High we learned to twirl batons and we joined the twirling corp at school. Don't know how we ever afforded the batons, boots, and uniforms, but somehow we did and we loved it. We marched in parades - the ones I remember were the July 24th celebration in Lewiston and Black and White Days in Richmond. Also about this time when I entered Mutual (Young Women's) our Cornish Ward girls had a terrific softball team. We won the stake championship several years in a row. Carolyn Kent Robinson was our secret weapon. She was our pitcher and the best for miles around. I was kind of a tomboy growing up and played all sports all the way through school. I'm still an avid sports fan.

Grandpa Fife died when I was fifteen and when we went to his funeral; lots of the older Fife relatives told me that I looked just like my Grandma Clara Fife. I can't wait to meet her and see for myself. The following year Daddy got sick. It was a sad time for all of our family. We prayed and prayed that he would be made well, but that was not to be and he passed away May 3rd, 1956, a few weeks before my 9th grade graduation. Due to Mother's ill health, my brothers and sisters and I were sent to live with some of Daddy's brothers and sisters and Mother's family took her to their care. The day we were all separated was without a doubt the most horrible day of my life. Don't get me wrong, I will be forever grateful to Aunt Doris and Uncle Val for taking my brother, Jerry, and I into their home. I appreciate so much the efforts of Aunt Doris to see that I learned piano, got voice training and learned to lead music and so forth, but I missed Carol, Pauline, and Lonny more than I could ever express in words.

Carol had met Larry Gregory before she moved over to Aunt Bessie and Uncle Frank Lasts. They were married in October 1957 as I was starting my junior year in high school. We spent a lot of time with them and love and appreciate Larry so much (and Carol, too, of course) for taking one or the other of us into their home throughout the early years of their marriage. They were our refuge and we depended on them sometimes more than we should have.

High School was fun for me most of the time. I participated in the musical productions and once played a black maid in a school play. I was quite a site! I was always in the choir and led the music in seminary all three years. I think it was about the time I was 14 or 15 I was called to lead the music in the Jr. Sunday School. I'm guessing that over my lifetime of church callings, I have led the music in either Sacrament Meeting, Relief Society, or Primary for almost 45 years. Aunt Doris also taught me to sew and I made a nice dress with a coat that I lined with the same fabric as the dress for my seminary graduation.

After high school graduation in May 1959, I went to Salt Lake City and lived with Sister Leah D. Widtsoe. I worked for room and board and attended L.D.S. Business College. During the time that I lived with Sister Widtsoe I met a lot of general authorities of the church and had the privilege of meeting President McKay several times. I would drive Sister Widtsoe to general conferences at the tabernacle and could sit with her and the wives and widows of the authorities. I didn't fully appreciate those opportunities until years later and realize what a blessing that was to have that association with Sister Widtsoe and her family. They were so good to me and treated me like one of the family.

The first time I ever traveled out of Utah except for trips to visit relatives in Idaho was with Sister Widtsoe and her daughter Anne Wallace "Wally." We went to Tempe, Arizona. Sister Widtsoe's son-in-law, G. Homer Durham, who was married to Eudora Widtsoe, had just been made President at Arizona State University and they had invited us for a visit. We stopped at the Grand Canyon on that trip and then stayed at a motel owned by some of their family friends in Phoenix. I had a wonderful time. We swam in the pool at the motel on New Year's Eve. It seemed like heaven.

While I was at the Widtsoe's, mother's condition had deteriorated to the point that she was put in Sunshine Terrace nursing home in Logan. Several times I got the call to come home because they didn't think mother was going to make it. I would catch the bus and ride to Logan thinking that she would die before I could get there and I'd feel so sick. I was missing so much school and not being able to concentrate. I asked Heavenly Father to help me to know when I really needed to go home. He answered my prayers. I was able to stay in school and concentrate. When Aunt Doris called me on the 24th of September, I just knew that I had to go home. Pauline and Carol picked me up at the bus station and we went straight to the hospital. Mother was in a coma, but I felt certain that she knew we were there. We had decided to go eat and clean up and then meet back at the hospital, but just a few minutes after we got to Pauline's, the phone rang and mother had died just after we left her. She looked like an angel in her casket - finally at peace and free from all that pain and suffering. I always felt that she hung on a long as she did to see her first granddaughter, Sherry Gregory, who was born on August 31st.

While at business school I was a member of the Alpha Lota Sorority and sang in women's chorus. We traveled to schools as far as Provo and performed. Graduation from business school was a great day for me. My first job was at Zion's First National Bank. Anne Wallace took me to the bank a few weeks before graduation and introduced me to some of her friends of there and I didn't even really have an interview - except for the time I spent with them there with "Wally." They put me to work as soon as I graduated. I worked for about a year and then Sister Widtsoe and Wally took me down to BYU and got me enrolled and made sure I had a job. I worked in the religion department and really loved it. I lived off campus and trudged up hill 2 miles in the snow (REALLY) to class. It was a great experience for me and I'm so thankful to Sister Widtsoe for all the help she gave me over the years. I made it through a couple of semesters, and then returned to Salt Lake where I got a job with Beehive State Bank and got an apartment with friends.

My brother Jerry went on a mission in January of 1962. Larry's parents, Les and Pearl Gregory paid for Jerry's mission. I didn't realize the extent of their sacrifice, nor what a wonderful expression of love and charity it was on their part until a long time later. I hope I get the opportunity to thank them again some day.

In the fall of 1963 Carol and Pauline were in an automobile accident and Pauline was seriously injured. I quit my job at the bank and went up to Carol's so that I could spend time with Pauline and help where I could. In November of that year, I got a job at what was then Thoikol Chemical Corp. I was at their medical facility having a physical prior to my employment the day that President Kennedy was shot in Dallas, Texas.

While working at Thoikol, I met and married Donald L. Harger. We married on December 4th 1965 and I became an instant mother of three boys, John, 11; Dan, 10; and Brian who was 9. Three weeks after we married, we moved to Renton, Washington where Don had a job with Boeing. The boys were only with us temporarily, and returned to California their mother a few months later. Being bored and lonely, I went to work at Boeing. We had only been in Washington about a year, when a better job opportunity took us to California. We moved to San Diego and I met Don's family for the first time. Kind of a scary experience for me, but they were so kind and loving and accepting of me. In 1967, we moved to Redlands, California where Don worked for Lockheed Propulsion Company. We were there for 8 years, bought our first home and had our two daughters, Jeri Dawn born October 11,1968 and Kristina Michelle born July 10,1972.

Our Jeri has her name because on August 9, 1968, my brother, Jerry and his wife Jeannie were involved in a terrible auto accident in Cokeville, Wyoming. Jerry was killed instantly and his wife was paralyzed. I was seven months pregnant when I flew to Utah to be there for the funeral and to spend time with Jeannie at the hospital. I told her I was going to name the baby Jerry if it was a boy and Jeri if it was a girl. Jeannie was such a trooper and it was one of the hardest things I've ever done - to see her suspended in that "halo" at the hospital. Such a terrible tragedy.

In February 1968, Don's first wife passed away and the boys came to live with us permanently. We had a real house full. The boys eventually had to share one bedroom because I was pregnant with Jeri when they came to live with us. Not an ideal situation, but somehow we managed and we even had a pretty good time.

In October 1974, Lockheed closed its doors and Don got a job with Aerojet General Corporation near Sacramento, California. We took one house-hunting trip before he even started his job, but he had to be there the first of December and I stayed in Redlands with the girls until Jeri got out of school for Christmas vacation. Don had rented an apartment in Fair Oaks, California and we lived there for a couple of months until we bought our house in Cameron Park.

In October 1979, I also went to work for Aerojet. Our son John married Lori Schmidt in June of 1984. They adopted their first little baby in September of 1991. Ashley Anne was a month old before we got to see her, but what a blessing she is in her parent's life and ours. In November 1993, they got another baby girl, Katherine Marie. She looks so much like the Hargers and is such a wonderful addition to our family.

We bought a new house in Cameron Park in December 1986 and Jeri graduated from high school in June. She met John Santos in 1988 while working at Intel. They married in January 1989. In June of 1990 they moved to Chandler, Arizona and they had their first baby, Danielle Kristina, that September. Don and I arrived at the hospital just minutes after she was born. What a thrill to hold our first granddaughter.

Most of 1992 was a blur. Don had a stroke, from which he eventually had a full recovery - thank the Lord! Our daughter Kristina met and married Scott Baker. Their first baby Taylor Nicole was born January 12, 1993. It was a wonderful and humbling experience to be present for Taylor's birth and to hold her when she was but minutes old. The Bakers also moved to Chandler, AZ in February in 1993. John and Jeri's second daughter, Alexis was born May 31,1993.

Krissy and Scott had their second baby in October of 1994. I took a voluntary lay-off from my job and went to Arizona to help Krissy. She had been hospitalized with premature labor. I was also fortunate to be present when Mackenna Dawn came into the world on October 7, 1994. Babies are so wonderful! I spent two or three weeks with Scott, Kris, Taylor and Mackenna before returning home to Cameron Park to a life of leisure! Krissy and Scott divorced in 1995. Don retired from Aerojet in December of 1995. We sold our house in Cameron Park and bought a house in Chandler. It's been wonderful being near the girls and their families - and not to far from San Diego where John and Lori and their girls live.

Kris met and married David William Hart while they were both working at Intel. Dave was the proud Daddy of an 18-month old daughter, Samantha Ashley. Kris and Dave were pregnant right away with twins. It was a problem pregnancy from the beginning and in March she was hospitalized in Good Samaritan hospital in Phoenix. It was a long couple of months for all of us. We tried to get the other girls down to the hospital for a visit with "MOM" two or three times a week. I put a lot of miles on my trusty Maxima. Dave was a wonderful support to Kris through this whole ordeal, spending as much time at the hospital as possible. He probably has permanent back damage from sleeping at the hospital for all of that time. Krissy was drugged and kept in bed until those sweet babies just would not be put off for another minute and early on the morning of May 25th, Dave called to say we would probably have babies pretty soon. Jordan Kristina weighed only 3 pounds, 10 ounces. Madison Rae was a little bigger weighing in at 4 pounds, 12 ounces. We are all so thankful that they were born with few problems - just premature and tiny - and nothing that was life threatening. They are now 4 and would never know that they were born 7 weeks early.

Our son, Dan, still lives in the Placerville, California area and is doing well. He calls himself "the tree doctor" and prunes and trims trees. He also drives a water truck for the forest service on the fire line. Our youngest son, Brian, lives in Montrose, Colorado and is a GREAT motocross racer. He has been near the top or on top in Colorado competitions since he started racing several years ago. He is a roofer by trade and works for High Life Homes in Montrose.

I am so thankful for my heritage and for the love, health, and happiness with which I have been blessed through my life. I am truly grateful for all of my family.