She was put in the hospital just days before Christmas. I was a junior in high school and was part of the Davis High choir. We had a concert on Temple Square that year and came home late on a Sunday night. I found out that she was in the hospital and demanded to be able to go see her. It was a school night, but I prevailed. I remember thinking how small she looked in the big hospital bed. She was moved to a care center, and I got to visit her again on Christmas Eve. She wasn't awake during our visit, and I remember thinking, "Please take her! I'm going to miss her, but please take her!" She was suffering, and she was ready. We went home that evening with plans to come back Christmas Day, but that visit never happened.

You see, the miracle came around 9 a.m., on Christmas Day 1987, her 70th birthday. We had finished up our Christmas morning and were going to start getting ready to visit her, when the phone rang. I was holding a teddy bear and sitting quietly in the living room. I couldn't hear the phone conversation, but I knew what had happened.

Grandma got her gift. She got to go home. She got to leave that frail, sick body behind, and she was having a wonderful reunion. I pictured it in my head as though those loved ones were waiting, watching with giddy anticipation for her to show up, just like I had so many times when she'd come to visit us.

It has been 19 years since those events took place, and yet I remember them all so vividly. I remember being angry with my 16-year-old self. I didn't cry. I couldn't cry. It was what we had been waiting for, and you can't cry when you get what you wished for.

I've cried many times over the years that have followed. Even now as I relive them here, I can't help but cry. But at that time, and it remains true today, I had seen a miracle, and I would never forget it! Christmas Day saw the birth and death of a truly elect soul, and I cherish the heritage that she has bestowed on us. Not only in the incredible music that she left behind, but also in the lessons of unconditional love that all of us as her family have continued to feel from her.

She truly was a Christmas miracle!