Childhood

I was born September 15, 1922 in Kaysville, UT. In a bedroom. The home was originally the Christopher Layton home. He was one of the men that Brigham Young sent to different areas to settle. Layton, UT was named after him. Kaysville had already been settled by someone named Kay. His last name was Kay and so they called it Kaysville. Christopher Layton had 8 wives and 63 children. His last wife that he had, ended up being my stepmothers mother. She came back and lived in the home that I was born in, the home that Christopher Layton (her husband) had built, until she died. She was a cute lady and I loved her so much. Lots of people in Kaysville and Layton are related to the Layton family because of the posterity that he had and they all settled right around there. In fact my brother's wife, her grandfather was a Layton. He was one of the children of Christopher Layton.

My father was Robert Bruce Major. They called him Bruce. My mother was Pearl Estelle Bernett. She came from West Virginia and dad met her on his mission back there. His first mission. At that time missionaries went without money (without purse or script), and he traveled all over the South. He was in West Virginia most of the time. It was interesting to hear him talk about it. He loved the South and he loved the people. He said this family, that mother came from, were not latter-day saints at all and weren't interested in the church, but they would take in the missionaries and help them. He said that he stayed there quite a bit during his mission. Otherwise he said that he was invited to stay in people's homes, but many times it would have been better to stay in the barn. Some of the places were so bad. But he served two missions out there. When I was a child he was called on a mission again, to the Southern States, and he was gone for a year at that time. They needed missionaries and he was always volunteering it seemed like. He loved it.

After I was married he had Virginia take Gloria and Bob so that they could go on a mission to California. In his patriarchal blessing it said that he would be called to go on a foreign mission. It said he would go back to the land of his ancestors and teach. Well, he never did, that was his last mission and he was in his late 60's then. When they were called to serve in California he turned it down! I told him that he was always telling all of us that we were to do whatever was asked to do in the church and that you don't hesitate. And he said that they got it wrong, my blessing said hat I'm to go over seas. I said, "Dad you have got to go on this mission, you may be called again, you don't know that." And he went. They served in Northern California. That was his best mission, he loved his mission. My step mom went with him, but she had to come home early. She had a son, Evan, who was like an eight year old and Martha took him while they were on their mission. But, every time she wrote to them she would tell her mother to come home. So Aunt Luella went home when the mission was about half over, but dad stayed the entire time.

He just loved that mission and he did so much good there. His biggest success was, he said there were many girls down there who had married men who weren't in the church. Couples where only one of them was a Latter-Day Saint. He worked with them and converted so many men, he just had a wonderful mission. The highlight of his mission too was one day he was in church, it was a small church, and a Jewish man heard the music as he was walking down the street and so he walked into the church to see what it was. And he became really enthralled and Dad introduced himself to him and invited him to church. And he has done a lot of good in the church, he is a very special man. I can't think of his name now and I used to know him so well. Well, he married a Latter-day saint woman and they had a half a dozen kids as fast as they could. Every time I heard about him they were having another baby and then she died and left him with the six little kids. When I was on my trip over in Jerusalem, there he was. I saw him in one of the church houses and we went in. No it was in the Dome of the Rock. So I went up to him and introduced myself and he had a young blond woman that he introduced to me as his wife. So he was remarried, that was the last time I saw him. Dads story about that was written up in the Sunday school magazine. It's called something instructor. Anyway it talked about this mans conversion.

My dad loved him so much and when dad died he was one of the main speakers that was there. Dad was really proud of that, that he converted a Jewish man and his grandfather had been a Rabi. He said at dads funeral, I remember him saying, "I'm just so glad that Bruce Major will be in the same area where my Grandfather is, in the spirit world now, and he'll be able to teach him what he did for me."

Anyway, lets get back to where I was born. I was the third child of five children and my oldest sibling is Paul. The oldest was Paul and Virginia two years after him and three years after that was Grayce and 18 months later was Bob and Gloria was three years after Bob. Bob's name was Robert Bruce too. I never had a common name, Grayce is an old name and it was an old fashioned name when they gave it to me. I didn't know anyone else named Grayce when I was growing up. They named me after Dad's oldest sister, she had died, I never did get to meet her and they decided to give me her name. As I got older I've met one or two ladies named Grayce.

See my mother and dad didn't get married until later in life. My dad said that he wasn't going to get married until he was the age that Christ started his work which was at the age of 33. My mother was one year younger than him, so she was 32 by then. I had all of my children by the time I was 30 and she was just starting her family at 32. And see she didn't live a long life because she died when she was 47. It was really too bad. I'm sure dad had a lot of regrets over that, because they didn't have long together. He re-married after that but his life wasn't a happy life and it was partly because of his children. My older sister called our step mom the wicked witch of the west.

Paul was a quiet and shy boy, but a really good man. He didn't marry in the temple and that upset dad so much. Dad was such a religious man and so he kept at them and kept at them so after their third child they finally went through the temple but I don't know that they ever went back. It might have been better if they never had gone through the temple. But they were such good people. I used to work for him when they first set up business and it was hard times trying to get going. He started making donuts and then he got a confectionery store where he would make sandwiches and donuts there for lunches and stuff. I worked for him there, but it didn't last too many years. I don't think over two years. Then he opened a regular bakery in Kaysville, he was a wonderful baker. He would not use imitation things in his stuff so his bread didn't have dry yeast in it, but fresh yeast and milk not water. He wouldn't have it if it wasn't the best. And he was a good baker and they did very well with that. They did very well until he got arthritis just like I've got. He just couldn't lift the pots and pans and all the stuff that went with baking. So he had to sell the bakery and he was young, younger than I was when I got arthritis. He went out to Hill Field and got a job and his wife was working out there too and they both retired from Hill years later. They had a beautiful home in Kaysville. But they never got churchy. They had four children, one daughter and three boys. Out of that bunch, two of the boys were religious. The youngest ones wife is a worker at the Bountiful temple and last time I went I was thrilled to see her there. The oldest boy was a sweet, sweet man, but got his feelings hurt by his mother and father and so he never went back to see them again. I went to the wedding of his daughter and I said, where are your folks? And he said, "what folks, I don't have any folks." His name was Paul like my brother, but they always called him Paul B. for Paul Burnett (which was my mother's last name.) I told Paul B. that those are the only parents he would ever have in this life and he needed to get re-acquainted with them. It had been years by then since he had spoken with them.

When I was between 2-3 years old I got pneumonia and it was really a dangerous disease back then. Most people died then if they got a bad case of pneumonia. Dad said they prayed and prayed and fasted for me and I don't know how long it was before I was well. I had it a long time, I don't know how long. My mother said I had it long enough that I couldn't walk and I was just like a baby. I had to be fed, I was 2 1/2 years old. In those days pneumonia killed you because they didn't have any antibiotics. Just like my mother dying, it was because of an infection that got into her wound where they had opened her and they didn't have any thing to kill the germs with.

I guess they really babied me a lot because Virginia said I was a spoiled brat. She used to tell me stories that I was adopted and that my parents really didn't love me and I didn't really belong. She would tell me that just to make me cry.

I was born with red hair, auburn hair, and I hated that hair because they would call me read head gingerbread 5 cents a loaf, take a bite take a bite it's good for your appetite. I remember that because it was so bad. I hated my hair, that dark red color. I had it until I started having children and with each child it got lighter and pretty soon I had no red. I was shocked when I realized that the red was gone in my hair. But it didn't bother me at all since I never liked my red hair even though that is what grandpa said he married me for. He had said he was marrying me for my red hair and my freckles. I still have plenty of freckles. Trina had freckles just like I did. When we were putting make-up on her, when she was in the casket, Rita, Sue and myself went over to put her make-up on and do her hair and stuff. Dave was there and he said don't you dare cover those freckles and I'm sure she would have said, be sure and cover those freckles.