Tribute to Sarah Amelia Sanders

About a month ago I posted my Great-Grandma Sanders History. My Uncle Adrien shared the following tribute with this preface, "I recently finished reading the personal history of Brian Gubler, and in it he included his love and experience with our grandma (Sarah Sanders). He spent a significant part of his growing up years in LaVerkin."
This was just too good not to post and share.

TRIBUTE TO GRANDMA SANDERS

By Brian Tell Gubler

(Son of Tell Gubler who is the son of Henry Gubler)

As I look back over the hundreds of teachers I have been exposed to, I hold many of them in very high regard for their dedication, imagination and the understanding they brought into their classrooms. Nowhere is this more in evidence than with one of the teachers I had as a young lad in Church. She accepted the calling of a teacher where patience, understanding and dedication were embraced with pure love. Her name is Sister Sarah Amelia Sanders. She was born in the little village of Mountain Dell, Utah, in 1876 and grew up under very humble circumstances. When compared with the opportunities of the youth in this day and age, she would have been classed among the truly disadvantaged, for she was only able to go to school for 3 months. However, she came out of those three months with three things that were to place her in good stead for the eight decades that were to follow. She learned to read and she developed a great love for books and a thirst for knowledge. So, her education truly began when she com­pleted her formal education, meager as it was.

Sister Sanders (Wilson at that time) became a Sunday School teacher at North Creek at 14 years of age and continued in that calling until after she married and started her own family. She, her husband and their first three children moved to La Verkin shortly after the turn of the century. Upon their arrival, there were a total of five families, including theirs, in the community. She continued where she had left off, by teaching Sun­day School. By 1904 there were 13 families in the town. Sister Sanders had 9 children of her own to rear, in addition to her work in the local ward, where she was also in the Relief Society Presidency and a Primary Teacher.

Sister Sanders taught my father, and she taught me and had we not moved from LaVerkin, she would have taught my children. I recall her humble classroom in the basement of the LaVerkin ward meeting house. It was located in the southeast corner and measured eight by twelve feet. The cement walls were painted lime green and the floor was covered with linoleum. There was a single window, about one foot by two, high up on the south wall. A lone light bulb, suspended from the ceiling, provided what little light we had and in the late afternoons it was augmented by a shaft of sunlight that came through the window, striking the green wall above our heads on the east side of the room.

Everyone loved Sister Sanders' classes. She was a great story teller. We would all patiently listen to her lessons, because we knew that when she was finished she would tell a story--stories that sparked the imagination and extended our horizons--stories about Pioneers and Indians. We would all sit on the edge of our benches as she would tell us of places far removed and people much different than ourselves.

Each Fast Sunday we would eagerly attend the meeting, because we knew that two things would happen. Sister Sanders would be among the first, if not the first to stand and bear her testimony. The second is that she would always tell a story.

Sister Sanders was a Sunday School Teacher for over 60 years. She was a Relief Society Teacher and Visiting Teacher for 50 years. She was also a primary teacher for some 40 years. By the time she was in her 80's, she had taught three and in some cases four generations of children in LaVerkin. As they would grow up and go on missions, or into the service of their country, Sister Sanders would write to each one of them faithfully until their return. Her son, Owen, told me that he remembers, as a child, her selling their left over eggs and cream. She would get a few pennies here and a few there. And she would always use this money on the children in her classes. She would give them small gifts as a token of the love she had for each of them.

With Sister Sanders, Love was what it was all about. She loved each of Heavenly Fathers Children with all of her heart. She never spoke in anger. Sister Sanders became a legend in her own time, which was not something she sought.

On almost any Sunday, you could catch a glimpse of a group of young people in the corner of the Church, having some type of discussion. And there was usually a white head showing out from among them. As you would get closer, it would become obvious that it was Sister Sanders, talking with them or telling another of her fascinating stories. Sister Sanders was young at heart, even after her body had become wrinkled and bent with age. She had no idea what the "Generation Gap" was, for she was one of us.

I have known many talented and great teachers. Yet, Sister Sanders would have to stand at the top of my list as the most dedicated and loving teacher it has been my great pleasure to know. If she were to read these words, she would be embarrassed, as she did not feel she was doing anything unusual, or different, or even that she had gone the extra mile again, and again and again. She was simply doing what she loved to do most, teaching children. This tiny frail daughter of our Heavenly Father spent a lifetime in the service of the people in that little town. She was an inspiration to all who knew her. She loved life and she loved people. She would say "Life is great!" There was no question that she meant it. She said, "There is so much to do and not a minute to waste." This is the philosophy she carried with her right up until the last day of her life. And I believe she is still teaching those children of our Heavenly Father who never had the opportunity to hear the teachings of Jesus Christ while they were on this earth.