In a bid to give my fiance a chance to get to know me even better, I let her take a peak at my file of Christmas letters. I write a two page letter every year (yes, I can hear the groans of boredom already) which I continued to write as there were some who claimed it was a highlight of their Christmas season. I hesitated showing her the letter from 2017, three years after my wife passed away.
Catherine and Tim Frodsham
I decided that year that it was time for me to move forward, and in doing so, I wrote a tribute to LaNae. I decided to share the letter with her because learning how to love LaNae ultimately taught me how to love again. I am not sure why it took another 5 years for me to find Catherine, the Lord’s timing is his own, but she is certainly worth the wait.
Excerpt from the 2017 letter
This year for me was a time for reflection. LaNae passed away three years ago this August, and we as a family have had time for healing. After LaNae’s death, events would race through my mind; things that I did wrong, things that I could have done better while caring for her. Always the ‘what if’. Through time, prayer and contemplation, I have come to realize that what the Lord God omnipotent gave me through all of this experience was His trust. He trusted me to care for His most precious of daughters. A woman of near infinite capacity to love, a woman of uncompromising faith. He trusted me to watch over her, to tend to her and to comfort her at a time when she was the most weak and vulnerable. I have learned that the Lord did not want my perfection, He simply wanted my all, He simply wanted me. I miss her. I miss her more than I can ever express. I miss her faith that grounded me, her compassion that inspired me, her friendship that lifted me and her forgiveness that softened me. I miss too that stubborn red head that confused my soul and tried my patience. I miss her feminine logic that bewildered me to the core. I ache when I hold my grandchildren, knowing how much she wants to hold them; when I dance, knowing how much she wants to be in my arms. I marvel at the happiness we have as a family. We laugh together, cry together, celebrate life’s events and hold fast to all that is good and true. I rejoice, knowing that we are sealed together for all eternity.
Please Lord, bless our families this Christmas season. Bless the healing to continue, faith to flourish and joy to abound. We celebrate Your birth, Your life and Your atonement that makes possible such hope.
It is a little late, but Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Hold the Savior close in you lives, and your families even closer.
Tim Frodsham
Latter-Day Saints 