"I Wasn't There For the Weeds"

 "Dad was the senior high counselor in his stake, and he had the responsibility for the welfare farm. And assignment was given to weed a field of onions, so Dad assigned himself to go work on the farm. He never told me how hard it was, but I have met several people who were with him that day. I talked to one of them on the phone, and he said that he was weeding in the row next to Dad through much of the day. He told me the same thing that others who were there that day have told me. he said that the pain was so great that Dad was puling himself along on his stomach with his elbows. He couldn't kneel. The pain was too great for him to kneel. Everyone who has talked to me about that day has remarked how Dad smiled and laughed and talked happily with them as they worked in that field of onions. 

"Now, this is the joke Dad told me on himself afterward. He said he was there at the end of the day. After all the work was finished and the onions were all weeded, someone said to him, "Henry, good heavens! You didn't pull those weeds, did you? Those weeds were sprayed two days ago, and they were going to die anyway."

"Dad just roared. He thought that was the funniest thing. He thought it was a great joke on himself. he had worked through the day in the wrong weeds. They had been sprayed and would have died anyway. 

"When Dad told me this story, I knew how tough it was. So I asked him, "Dad, how could you make a joke out of that? How could you take it so pleasantly?" He said something to me that I will never forget, and I hope you won't. He said, "Hal, I wasn't there for the weeds." "

Henry B. Eyring, from a talk given at a BYU Fireside, 30 September 1990.