I was saddened to hear about Sherwood’s passing. He meant a lot to me and so many others. Pardon me while I reminisce a little bit. About a year after I joined the church and graduated from High School, I moved to Mt. Pleasant, MI to attend CMU. The Bridges were one of the first families I met. Sherwood became my mentor and model of a Mormon Dad. He and Ann became good friends. One time they were bringing me back home after Church and the Dorm was on fire. I was panicking worrying that my genealogy was going up in smoke. Ann and Sherwood just calmly took me home with them until the excitement died down. Later, when Nancy and I got married Sherwood was the Bishop. We were building a church building at that time. He called us into his office and told us he needed $1000 from us for our share. We were college students and that was a lot of money at that time. That is about the total of money we received in gifts from our wedding, so we turned it over to him. That was all we had but we trusted in his inspiration. Looking back that was one of the best decisions we ever made and our lives have been enriched as he taught us to consecrate our lives to the Savior. Sherwood always challenged me. I remember one time when teaching institute he told me that John Taylor was excommunicated from the Church. I was flabbergasted until I found out it was John W. Taylor, son of the prophet-not the prophet. Sherwood just laughed. Although he called me Maytag because I was always agitating, he was really the “ant hill kicker”. He loved to stir up things and watch everyone scurry around! When we were to have a new Stake President and someone implied he was a good candidate, he said he was going to find the biggest cigar he could find and would pace back and forth in front of the Stake President’s house with it! Sherwood was always there for me whenever I needed to borrow a tool or needed advice on some matter. I borrowed his drywall knife so many times that he said he would give it to me when he no longer needed it—and he mailed it to me a few years ago! It has just the right amount of spring to that blade! He is also responsible for one of my most embarrassing moments. After our wedding, our car broke down and pre-empted our honeymoon. So we arrived back in Michigan earlier than expected and right from the podium in Sacrament meeting he asked why we were there—I blurted out we had technical difficulties and it brought down the house with laughter. I still blush on that one. Ann’s impact is no less in my life as she quietly mentored me when we served together in the Stake and a myriad of other events and callings. I will always consider Sherwood and Ann to be my special friends…..