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Spotlight of my Life by JoAnne South Thornock
I, JoAnne South Thornock, like Nephi of old, was born of goodly parents, Lorenzo Snow South and Ruth Amelia Biorn. My parents moved just shortly before I was born. In those days, we had no hospital, so I was born in the Hotel. It must have been the “happening place” in those days because many of my friends claim the same beginning. I am the youngest of seven children (five girls and two boys). By the way, I was not spoiled!
As a child, I was a tomboy and loved to climb trees, catch field mice, play with lizards, and do all those thing that drive mothers crazy. I fell out of so many trees when I was a child that it’s no wonder my back hurts, but the thing I will never understand is why I am so afraid of mice, lizards, and basically anything that crawls now.
As a child, I also lived in the mountains in the summer, so I grew up loving the out-of-doors and thanks to my mother, to this day I still have a very strong appreciation for nature and for a loving Heavenly Father who created such a beautiful world to live in. My mom always told me that when we lived in the woods, I would sit for hours and watch the deer out in the meadow, but after watching the deer this past winter eat all of my trees and bushes, my love for them has diminished just a little bit.
I have always been proud of coming from a big family and will never forget all the fun times our family enjoyed working and playing together. We always spent a lot of time around the piano singing just about any song we had ever heard. Probably my most fond memories, though, are of our family sitting around the table in our little cabin in the woods just enjoying one another’s company. We didn’t have T.V., telephones, lights, running water, bathrooms, or any of the modern conveniences, but we had each other, and that seemed to be all we needed.
My life changed drastically when I was in the sixth grade. One day my dad took me with him to purchase a horse from Kay Thornock. As I was sitting in my dad’s truck, a blond-haired boy came out of the Thornock house and almost from that moment on the “tomboy” stuff became a thing of the past. As you probably guessed, that bond-haired boy was Gaylon Thornock.
We became friends, dated on and off during high school, and after he returned from his mission to the Cook Islands in May 1965, we renewed our friendship, fell in love, and were married in the Logan Temple on December 17, 1965. I was attending college at the University of Wyoming at the time and was just ready to do my student teaching, but when love strikes, nothing else seems to matter.
Gaylon and I are the proud parents of six children: Brenda, Bruce, Suzanne, Jodi, Jenny, and Nikki. We also have six darling grandchildren and know there will be many more joining our family in the future. there is nothing more special than when our children marry good spouses and choose to be married in the House of the Lord, and we are very proud of our children for making this a priority in each of their lives.
Life has been very good, and I am very thankful for all of my many blessings. |