Laurita Gray is one sweet lovely lady, but when I was little, she scared the bajeebers out of me! When I was little we went to Primary at the church on Wednesday afternoon. Sister Laurita Gray was in the Primary Presidency, and one of her jobs was to get all the kids in the Chapel and get started on time. One time some of the boys didn’t want to go to Primary, so we were hiding in the Men’s Restroom! We heard Sister Gray’s voice through the door saying it was time for Primary to start. I yelled back and said, “We aren’t going to Primary, we are staying in the boy’s restroom and there is nothing you can do about it because girls aren’t allowed in the boy’s restroom!” Just then the door flew open and Sister Gray charged in and grabbed me and one other boy by the ear and walked us down the hall and into the Chapel. I remember sitting in the Chapel, scared out of my mind, and thinking that lady is one mean person, and I better be good when she is around!
That next week my mom had a real hard time getting me to go to Primary, but she somehow got me to the church. I walked in thru the kitchen and then into the hall and I saw Sister Gray standing there in the hall. She looked at me, and with a stern voice she said “Go to the Chapel” I turned around and ran out the door, and ran to the fence and climb over it to the trail along the NID ditch and I ran home. The problem was, as I was climbing over the fence, I dragged my hand over the barbed wire, and the barbed wire gave me a 2 inch slice in the side of my right hand! When I got home my mom washed it, then she got some gauze and tapped it up. When it healed it left a scar, so for the past 50 years I have called it my Sister Gray scar! What’s funny is, as the years went by, Sister Gray and I became good friends. After my dad’s funeral I was talking to her and told her the story of the scar. She just smiled at me, then my mom said those famous words, “I’m sure you deserved it!”