Mormons call each other Brother and Sister, usually with surname attached ("Sister Palmer"). In Sharjah, for whatever reason, it was Brother and Sister with first name attached ("Sister Bridget"). I preferred it that way, honestly. It took a little while to adjust to the new format, though, as you'll see from the following anecdote.
Our very first friends in Sharjah when we moved there five years ago were a couple at church who also happened to work at AUS. They were about the age of our parents, so it was a natural grandma/grandpa-type relationship for our kids. We met Candy first, so she was Sister Candy. Later, when we met her husband Rob, the girls called him Brother Candy (the same way we are Brother and Sister Palmer, they must have thought). And within our family at least, the name stuck, even after Rob got a leadership calling in our church that gave him the title President instead of Brother.
This morning, we heard the sad news that Brother Candy passed away in Sharjah. I know not many of you readers (if any) knew him, but I cope with my feelings by writing. So please know that Brother Candy was the kind of person who, when you get to talking to him, seems to have fit five lifetimes into one. Do you know anyone like that? Brother Candy had experience working at and possibly even owning an auto repair shop. And he had been in the Foreign Service. And he was mayor of Eagle Mountain for a while. And then, of course, there was the life we knew him in, as a professor and neighbor and fellow church member and surrogate grandpa. We had Thanksgiving dinner at his house four out of the last five years - friends like that become family when live far away from people who share your last name.
We are missing him from Finland today.
