Still at 18 Nohorua Street; Porirua, N.Z.
15 February 1989
Dear Steve and Family,
I’m sorry I have taken so long to respond to your recent letters. I have enjoyed very much (I think I better print) hearing from you and learning of your family growth and all that is happening with you. I have especially enjoyed seeing the photos. And, like you, still feel that strong bond of brotherhood, across the years and the vastness of the ocean; and those photos help reaffirm that feeling. I only apologize that I have none to send you—a situation which I shall remedy very soon. Thanks for all the letters and notwithstanding my own slackness in replying, keep the letters coming.
I was very pleased to learn of your plans and would be pleased to share this momentous occasion with you and Barbara and the family. Please let me know when this is to happen so I can make arrangements.
I was sorry to hear about President Rhoton and I shall write to Sister Rhoton, too. I appreciate you passing this on to me.
One reason I have been slow to respond is that I have been very ill. My health has been in a state of deterioration since May last year, when I spent three weeks in the hospital. Unfortunately, I failed to heed the warnings and was working 16 to 18 hour days and only eating once a day. It was only when I started experiencing dizzy spells that I went to the doctors—last November-December. The tests, et cetera, were inconclusive. But after a bad bout during the Christmas-New Year break I went again to my doctor, who fearing heart failure arranged for my hospitalization that same afternoon. I drove myself to the hospital, admitted myself and then sort of went unconscious. I learned later that my heart had failed due to an infection which had attacked the heart valve. (You remember the 1978 operation when the valve was replaced in Los Angeles.) Anyway, I had it replaced again by emergency surgery on Friday, 6 January 1989 and was discharged to 3-months convalescence at home, on 24 January.
I don’t mind telling you that I did not think I was going to make it this time and even now feel my hold on life is more tenuous than ever. I was quite sick going into this one and I think I was very fortunate to come home.
Moreover, I’m convinced that without the intervention of the Priesthood on my behalf, I would not be here and I cannot tell you what a great comfort it has been; i.e., but for the blessing of the Priesthood, I would not be too confident about the future (which I now am).
Although I am still recovering slowly (much slower than last time) and I am advised not to expect too much before about the end of April, I already feel better than before the operation. So I trust you will not let any of the above interfere in my coming to your sealing—it will likely fall into the May or later time frame, anyway.
With the exception of one course — I failed due to impaired examination performance due to illness in late October (the whole thing hangs on one final exam), I have completed my law degree. However, following on from my recent health traumas, I have had pause to reconsider what I’ve been doing and feel a deep need to spend more time with my girls. Waking from surgery and seeing them standing on the brink of orphanhood was very sobering. So I’ve convinced myself that it imperative that I spend time with them and make certain that they get started out properly. Both are now in high school system (5 years) and both are much younger (up to 2 years) than average, and I would like to help them through university level. I also feel a strong responsibility to insure, as much as possible, that they get a proper start as daughters of God and that they be exposed to as much of what is good and beneficial as I can produce.
My other personal ambition is now to alter my ways to a more relaxed lifestyle and rededicate myself to serving God. This of course will include large doses of cruising and fishing whenever I can, and working (for money) as little as possible (2-3 days a week max.)
I hope this letter has not been too maudlin. That was not my intention; it was merely to inform you and update you. I fully expect to pass from this phase in the next three months and to be better than I’ve felt for a couple of years.
I look forward to seeing you all sometime soon and ask that you keep up all those letter, etc. coming in. Yours have been particularly timely given that they brought good news at a time when things were low at this end. Thanks.
Otherwise, we’re all surviving. Both my parents are succumbing to the ravages of time. My Dad in his 74th year and aging—rapidly in the last two years. It’s been a real pleasure spending the last 5 years with them—they have much to pass on—genealogically and culturally. So I have learnt much—even my own Maori language and traditions—now vastly important to me—as important and rare and in need of protection as other endangered things on this planet. The Europeanization on New Zealand has left us, like the American Indian, vulnerable to cultural genocide through the destruction of language, traditions and societal structures. Assimilation policies by successive governments have failed to meet the particular needs of Maori people and we find, like indigenous people elsewhere that we become victims of systemic racism, etc.; i.e., the last on first off syndrome.
Anyway, from my parents’ files and papers, I have learned of their lifetime struggle against government sanctioned land and resource grabs and small-mindedness; and I have taken up many of these through legal research and argument, in objection to certain ill-conceived initiatives or mono-culturally founded projects, including the rape of local fisheries, etc.
I have found the struggle to me among the more meaningful things I’ve ever done—“Service of your fellow man…” and all that. It’s a lifelong undertaking and must be done, etc.
Enough of that. Please forgive the slowness of my response and the handwriting, etc.
God bless.
Your brother, Hepa
Lindsey: Endure Fort 