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in the Sunday School Superintendency. After they moved to Sacramento they continued on friendly terms. A few years later they were invited back for Thanksgiving. They went back as an ultimate act of forgiveness.
Sam was showing Grandpa around his glorious ranch, all paid for and free of debt. Grandpa said it came to him to give Sam a warning, but he shook it off until the prompting became overwhelming.
"You know, you owe me a lot of money," Grandpa told Sam.
"Yes, I do, and I'll pay you back someday," Sam promised.
"Sam, I know your intentions are good, but you will never have as good a time to pay me back as you once had. I feel to tell you that within 5 years you will no longer own your land free and clear, and you will be working for someone else," Grandpa prophesied.
"I don't believe that could ever happen," Sam said.
"Well, when it does, just remember that I told you."
Within five years, Sam had indeed lost his ranch and was working for the Irrigation District. Grandpa advised us that whatever we sow in life, a price must be paid, whether now or later.
Generosity. Lyle was a man true to his word and generous to a fault. He gave room and board to nieces, nephews, brothers and sisters, his parents in their old age. His house was always open. He hired many young men to work as roofers to help them earn money for their missions. He supported 4 of his 8 grandchildren on missions.
Testimony. Lyle gained his as a young man. His father was a nonmember for many years. After he joined the Church, the whole family spent 3 years preparing to travel by wagon to be sealed in the St. George Temple, a 2 day journey each way. He recorded in his journal how his testimony grew larger with each passing year. In fact the gospel was the center of his life. He took every opportunity to teach gospel principles to his grandchildren.
Genealogy. Perhaps it was from seeing Grandma work for years on genealogy, but Grandpa became a strong endorser of genealogy. He supported the work and funded Amy on trips to Salt Lake to research. Because of his support, over 100 names were done in the temple. He did the temple work for many of them himself.
Strength. Those Coleman boys were so small and tough that other kids would pay them money to fight each other. Lyle's strength came from a life of hard work, from farming, to working at plaster mills, working on road crews, construction crews, working as an awning installer and a builder and roofer. There was a time he was loading a hay wagon and a little girl asked if she could sit on the horse. As he loaded the last hay he signaled the horse to go. At the same time, he noticed the child had fallen in front of the wheel. He signaled the horse to stop, but the wheel was on her. He lifted the wagon so she could escape. When he arrived with the load, he told the men what had happened. Three men tried to lift the wagon and were not able.
Roofing. Who can forget the old green truck, with "Top Work" written on the side. When he began his own business as a roofer, he got so good that, at age 70, he could outroof the younger men. I remember trying to help by lifting one packet of shingles, but I couldn't budge them. Grandpa grabbed one in each hand and hoisted them. By age 78, he was hoping to retire, but folks wouldn't let him. By his 80's he had finally sold his business, but, secretly, began roofing his own garage. No one would have known had he not fallen off and hurt himself.
Speaking of accident, Grandpa literally defied death many times. There was the time he was 11 and his father sent him out in a snow storm to deliver some goods. He was bundled from head to toe. By the time he returned it was a blizzard and his mother was beside herself with worry. He was stiff with cold, but his father lifted him off the wagon with, "See, I told you he'd make it home." Another time, estimating a roofing job, he fell through a hole in a floor and landed on concrete with rebar sticking up, which skinned him slightly, but avoided piercing him.
His favorite story happened in Newcastle. In his own words: "There was an old house built over a canyon. They called it a castle. It had been roofed with a barn shake…The castle was built so that the roof came out over the canyon, but on the back side you could walk from the ground right up on the roof. It was pretty steep, about 6 and 12 pitch; all you can do to walk on it.
"We had to take the shakes off, and were taking them off with a pick. We were all working up on the south side, the canyon side. I got about halfway across the roof and when I swung the pick I had my feet between the sheeting so I could balance myself. When I leaned back to catch myself, the board came up and turned me loose. I went end over end, right through the pick, and I knew when I went off that roof It was curtains, because if was about 30-40 feet down to the bottom of the canyon. Nothing but rocks.
"There was a gutter on the house and when I was going down that roof my whole life flashed before me. Everything. I knew I was gone. But when I went off the roof I reached as far a I could reach, and I just happened to catch the gutter with my fingers. I must have had help from heaven above or I could never have held on to that gutter, I was going so fast. I don't know why the gutter didn't bend and let me go, but it didn't. My feet came down and hit the side of the house and I thought I had broken them both.
"By the time that the Wight brothers had gotten down off the roof and come around to where I was, I had reached up with one hand, pulled off two or three of the shakes and got ahold of the sheeting and climbed back onto the roof. They came down around and looked down in the canyon, and one of them said to the other two, 'Can you see him down there?'
"The other one said, 'No, I can't see him, but he's down there.'
'I know it. Well, let's get down there.'
"They started down the trail, and the trail was narrow and rough and rugged and it was slow going. I let them get down there about 10 or 15 yards down the canyon, and then I said, 'Where are you boys going? Why don't you come up here and get these shakes off?'
"They looked up there and saw me, and one of them turned as white as a sheet, because they knew I was in the canyon. He still swears to this day that he saw my spirit sitting there.
"So they came back up, and I went up the house and down to the other side. We went over and sat on the west side of the house. We sat there about 5 or 10 minutes, and then it hit me. I started shaking and having chills, and I couldn't control my body at all. I felt terrible. I couldn't work the rest of the day. "[Frosty Wight was in bed for 2 days, it scared him so bad.]"
Lyle may have defied death, but he never feared death. He knew as surely as the sun comes up each morning that death was merely a release from our second estate. He knew he would see his parents again, and his little son, Max, who had passed on at age 3. His wished to be released from his incapacitated body, so he could get on with the work of the gospel. On Thursday, July 4th, Amy and her children went to see him and fed him supper and gave him his eye drops. There was a peace in the room and about an hour after we left Grandpa got his wish.
Family was everything to him. He delighted in peaceful harmonious get-togethers. For years, after the prophet said everyone should have home evenings, they came over to share Vern's each Monday. They hosted family Thanksgiving dinners and joined Vern's family for Christmas and New Years. They MORE
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