Sometime in the fall of 1922 a new family by the name of Keith moved to Elberta. I was at a sacrament meeting in Elberta that I first saw Babera-Later this family moved neighbors to me. Babera Amelia Taylor was born the 5th of November, 1910 at Buckhorn, Utah. She was the only child of Amelia Edwards and Clyde Baber Taylor.
Her entrance into Earth Life came surrounded by tragedy and her life was of but a short duration for she only lived a few years short of 30 in all. Yet she filled her mission and accomplished the things required of her in this earthly existence. She was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She accepted the calls for service given her and filled them to the best of her ability. She chose a companion who took her to the House of the Lord, where they were married for time and eternity. She went down in to the valley of death four times that four child spirits might be permitted to obtain an earthly tabernacle for their earthly stay.
It was a stormy night November 5th, 1910- And Clyde Baber Taylor left his young wife with her mother while he rode out into the night to find a doctor because his wife Amelia was to give birth to their first child. This evening that was to be one of such joy in the arrival of their first born turned into one of great tragedy. For Clyde B Taylor, after finding the doctor and telling him to come as quickly as possible, mounted his faithful horse and turned with haste back to his beloved wife. But the storm’s fury had increased and as he hurried back through the night he didn’t know that death lurked in the shadows awaiting him. The storm had blown down the electric light wires and they had fallen across the road. He rode into them and was electrocuted.
The doctor coming closely behind him found him and his horse on the road. The horse was still alive but wounded too seriously to live and Clyde Baber Taylor had returned to his early home. The Doctor sent the nearest neighbors to get the body and journeyed on to deliver the baby. It was a tiny girl but the mother could not understand why her husband and the baby’s father had left her alone at this important time.
The good doctor realized he must tell her that he could not come, the tragic shock was almost too much for the weak mother. For days she lingered on the border line between life and death. Perhaps it was the cries of this tiny girl that brought her back; because she had a mission to fulfill and without nourishment from her mother she would have perished. For 53 years ago we didn’t have baby formulas, canned milk, or baby food. Life depended upon the mother.
I cannot write in detail too much of her early life because her life story returned with her to the grave. We knew that she lived in Buckhorn, Hinkley, Fillmore, Beaver, and Milford. Whether she and her mother went back to live with her mother’s parents, or with her father’s parents we cannot say but she spoke in later years spending time with her Grandparents Edwards and of living with her Grandparents Taylors.
When she was five years old her mother married William J Keith. He had been t married before but his wife had died-he had five children. So she had to make adjustments in learning to live with five other children. But she was of a mild and patient disposition and she made the adjustment. Nine more children were born to this family in the years that passed. So she grew up in a home where one learned to give and share and to take care of each other.
About 1920 they moved to Provo and in about 1922 to Elberta. They lived in Elberta and Goshen on farms until 1929 when they moved to Provo. But before they left Babera and I had decided that someday we would be married. “It had to be done in the Temple” Babera said, “Or it wouldn’t be done.” So on February 19, 1930 we went to Manti to the Temple and were married by by Lewis Anderson. I am thankful that Babera insisted on a Temple marriage.
She served as secretary in Mutual Primary and was a Relief Society Visiting Teacher. She loved her home and family. She enjoyed cooking and filling her cellar with food for the winter. She liked to sew and embroider. She made her home beautiful and cared for her children. She had had poor health as a child and after the birth of her fourth child her health began to break. She had her tonsils out and thought that would help. Then the doctors told her that her heart was overworked. Finally the doctors advised an operation. In September of 1940 she underwent surgery and at first she seemed to be recovering but her life ebbed away and on October 4, 1940 she passed from this existence.
“I entered life on the soft tones of sorrow and death. It wasn’t until my return to the spirit world and met my father for we had no association with each other in earth life. Distance and circumstances prevented our family unit from being eternal.”-Amelia Babera Taylor
