Thinking about Candace Daly for my last post made me think
of some of the other people who helped me in tremendous ways and who were
parents of my friends. Some of them
where always, and probably always will be my friends parent. I mean that I
really only had a connection to them because of their children. However some of the people that I am grateful
for started out as my friend’s parents but eventually became good friends
directly. They are people who became
close friends in their own right despite the strength of the relationship that
I had with their children.
One of these people, who I consider a friend first and the
parent of a friend second, is Rick martin.
Rick is Justin Martin’s dad.
Justin and I went to Viewmont High School together and were pretty good
friends. He was one of a group of
friends that as a group could have their own blog entry here. Perhaps I will write about the impact of the
group another day, but I will say that I could not have hand selected a better
group of people to surround me during those years. This group was frequently
found at the Martin’s home on weekend evenings.
It was the location of a couple of epic sleep overs and many movie
nights. This is how I got to know Rick
Martin.
Rick stood out among the parents of my friends because he
wanted to be part of the group. He
wanted to hang out, talk about what was going on, and he wanted to know who was
dating and who was not. There were many
times that he had to force himself away from us in order to give us our space
but I am sure that if he had no conscience about his son’s independence that he
would have joined us on every group date, come to every movie, been at every
dance and helped us leave pudding paintings on our friends door steps. He always made sure that we had plenty of
snacks to eat and drinks to drink.
Because of his nature we all got to know Rick a little bit.
I really started to get to know Rick when he and his wife
Doris chaperoned a trip that a group of us took to Zion’s National Park. On the way down I was in Rick’s car with his
family and a couple of friends. The
drive was going quickly because Rick’s son Justin had brought with him the
first Harry Potter book and we had convinced him that we could read it out loud
as we drove 9my first introduction to the series). Along the way the car began to overheat. We stopped once or twice to let it cool down
but ultimately as the sun went down the car finally called it quits. So here we are in the middle of nowhere I-15
Utah and our car is broken down. We
called for a tow truck and proceeded to read more Harry Potter. Ultimately there was not enough room in the
tow truck for all of us so those of us reading to book ended up in the broken
down car, on the top of the tow truck, still reading Harry Potter. We were towed to St. George where the friends
who had already made it down were able to pick us up and take us to
Zion’s. Rick and his wife stayed in St.
George to deal with the car. Ultimately
the next day they arrived at the campsite with a new car. The other had run its last race. Rick never complained about having to get a
new car, at least not to us. Instead he
was his usual joyful self through the trip.
He invited us to crash his hotel room so that we could all shower after
a long hike. He was as hospitable and
happy as ever.
While that story is symbolic of how Rick is, and explains
where I really started to get to know him, it was only the beginning of how
Rick helped to shape my life. Through
these experiences Rick was still my friend’s dad. It was several years later
that Rick became a friend.
Upon returning from a mission in England my family had moved
from our home in Bountiful to a home in Centerville. As such I was in a new neighborhood which in
my church meant a new ward and a new stake.
I was quickly asked to serve in a capacity as the young single adult
representative for all of the young unmarried folks in the stake. About this same time Rick was called to be
the young single adult advisor meaning that the two of us would work hand in
hand to develop activities and programs for the single people in the community.
We worked together in this capacity, along with his wife and others for the
next year and a half.
During this time Rick opened his home to us once a month. By us I mean dozens of young single members of
our church from the neighborhood. He
would provide food and snacks and a great place to get together. He helped young people to be welcome in the
church and to have a desire to associate with other likeminded people. He was good at his job and helped me to be
better at mine. It was in this capacity
that we became friends. He was one of
the first to know when I started dating someone, the first to encourage me
along when things didn’t work out. He
invited me to live in his home when my family left the city. He watched out for me and supported me. In many ways he was like family to me during
this time.
Yet his support went beyond that. Around this time I decided to run for
mayor. I was 22 years old and had only
been living in Centerville for a handful of months. I was living in the basement of some good
friends and had not yet completed college.
I was running against a 22 year citizen of the city who was a past city
council member which had run for mayor once before and only lost by 70
votes. I was crazy to even think about
running, and crazier still because I thought that I might have a chance of
winning. At that time Rick stepped up
and asked if he could help. He ended up
volunteering as my finance chair and went to work for my campaign. He helped me
to raise more money than had been spent in any Centerville mayor race to that
point. He made countless calls on my
behalf, hosted events in his home and gave credibility to my race that I could
not have had on my own. Rick’s contribution of time, energy, trust, money and
confidence was a major part of my success in that race. I was not successful in getting elected, but
I received a huge amount of support and a lot of votes. Many more votes than I think
anybody imagined.
The success of that race raised my profile in the community
despite not winning. It was not long
after that that I had a job offer which referenced my candidacy as one of the
major reasons for selecting me. It was
through that race that I met or became reacquainted with many people who have
become close friends. Looking back it
truly shaped my life and yet I know that without Rick’s support and confidence
I could not have done as well as I did and I would not have benefited from the
experiences in the ways that I have.
Certainly others were significant in that process, I may write about
them another time, but here I want to recognize what Rick did to shape and
change my life. I will forever be indebted
to him for his kindness and generosity towards me and I will always count Rick
as a good friend.
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