Someone pointed out an interesting thing he noticed about these pictures. In the book, I describe Virginia as being very overweight and not in good health, yet in these photos, she and Harley look really nice. Why is that?
It is a point I considered when picking photos for this site. First, the only family photo we ever took is above. That picture is one of the rejects from the photo shoot. Virginia gave each of us kids a discarded photo to keep for ourselves. The second photo was taken years later for Harley and Virginia's anniversary. I don't remember which one. What I do remember is that Virginia had the earliest version of stomach-stapling surgery to lose weight and this was her After photo. In both pictures she is wearing wigs. She and Grandma Quigley kept an assortment of wigs for public occasions.
The only other photos I have of Harley and Virginia Spencer were taken a year after Rex and I were adopted. We drove from Eugene, Oregon to Oakland, California to be sealed for eternity to our adopted parents in the LDS Temple in Oakland. This is how they looked on a regular day.
What I remember about our family sealing trip to the Oakland, CA temple was that my new adoptive mother, Virginia was super crabby in the car. She complained about how our new adoptive father Harley was driving, how hot and cold the air was, that my brother and I were making too much noise in the back seat, etc., etc.
At one point while barreling down the freeway, wishing for a bathroom (Harley wasn’t a fan of stopping for potty breaks), I carefully printed on a sheet of notebook paper in my best block-printed handwriting, “Help Me! I’m Being Kidnapped!” I held it up in the back window so the cars behind us could see it. After a couple of cars sped by us, the occupants slowing down to stare at Harley and Virginia in the front seat as they passed by, Virginia told me to take down whatever picture I was holding in the window, it was blocking Harley’s view out the back. I wasn’t looking for trouble, I just wanted to see what would happen. Turns out in 1975, not much.
Nothing else exciting happened for the long 10 hour trip from our home in Eugene, Oregon to the temple in California. It is a long, boring drive in a car without a radio. The radio cost extra when my new parents bought the Oldsmobile and they weren’t about to waste money on a silly radio.
The Oakland temple was very pretty with plush carpets. It had a children’s room with a tv hooked up to a new-fangled VCR, which played cartoon scripture stories that my brother Rex found interesting. I got busy eating cookies and being my adorable 8 year-old self with the ladies that ran the playroom. Soon enough Rex and I were handed white jumpsuits and white socks to put on by the nice powder-smelling temple ladies. I don’t remember anything else about getting sealed to our new parents.
After it was all over with and we were on the road going home, I had a conversation with God in my mind.
“Heavenly Father, I know I just got prayed over in the temple and that means I am sealed to the Spencer’s for eternity so when I die, I will be with them in heaven. But I didn’t mean it. When I get to heaven, I only want to be with my brother, not them, ok?”
I figured God could handle fixing the paperwork to make it happen. After that, I never paid attention to any church lesson about how families are eternal. I already had an agreement with God about my future and it was settled.
I figured God could handle fixing the paperwork to make it happen. After that, I never paid attention to any church lesson about how families are eternal. I already had an agreement with God about my future and it was settled.
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