Dedication

Dedicated to my wife 

Karen Garfield Richins 

28 January 1944 – 19 June 2009 

This picture of my wife was taken in the hospital when our oldest granddaughter was born in the fall of 2006.  I think this picture captures the love that she had for our family.  She loved and adored our children and grandchildren, and they all loved and adored her.  Her family was her most precious and priceless treasure.  She radiated warmth, grace, charm, beauty, love, and gratitude.  She had the rare ability of being fun-loving yet reverent, modest yet beautiful, strict with our children yet their best friend. 

Karen was as beautiful on the inside as she was on the outside.  She loved people and she extended herself to befriend everyone―no matter their station in life.  She had a firm and strong testimony of a living God.  She loved God and her fellowman.  Her sermon was the way she lived her life. 

In the fall of 2003, Karen was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, which is a cancer of the blood plasma.  Six years later and after 46 years of marriage, she passed away.  I had to say goodbye to the love of my life and to my dearest and closest friend.  Those 46 years were the happiest years of my life.  I loved her more than life itself.  Saying goodbye to her was the hardest thing I have ever done.  I do not have the words to describe the emptiness I feel nor the longing I still have to be with her.  Not a day goes by that I do not long to hold her in my arms and tell her I love her. 

The greatest gift I have ever received is the knowledge that there is a God and that there is life after death.  This means someday down the road I will once again be able to hold my wife in my arms and be with her.  This knowledge has brought me hope, peace and joy.  I don’t know how I could survive without this gift.  It is my singular desire that I can help others receive this same gift of knowledge. 

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