NIGEL CROWE II

8-15-2011A
Dear Nigel,
You have been on my mind recently. In my current church assignment, I am a Stake President over the Grand Junction Colorado West Stake, which means I supervise 10 wards or congregations. Vernon King, the bishop of one of these wards is a descendant of George Cannon from Peel. Bishop King and his family visited the Isle of Man early this summer and attended the Douglas Ward. When he told the members he was visiting the home of his ancestors, they told him he must either be a Cannon, Cowley or a Kelly. He reported that many of the members there knew you.

I hope things are going well for you and your family. I have been concerned about you and including you in my prayers. You have been so important to me in determining who I am. I always grew up knowing who I was-a Mormon cowboy from Monticello Utah with Mormon pioneer ancestry and then I go to the local airport here in Grand Jct. and meet you and your mother and realize that I am much more-I am a Manxman with a whole expanded heritage and set of relatives. That heritage was impressed upon me when I visited the Isle of Man last summer to meet more of my relatives. I am proud to be from the Isle of Man.

Thanks for taking me around the island and spending time with my family. Everyone was so friendly and kind. I am proud of where I came from and I feel a love and appreciation for my ancestors. I came from good people. I really enjoyed the celebration at Tynwald Hill. I enjoyed the pageantry-we don’t have much of that in our country and my daughters even met at church on Sunday one of the honored quest who marched in the proceedings the next day. I was amazed to discover that cherished American traditions of liberty and self government were in use in the Isle of Man at Tynwald Hill one thousand years ago like:
a. All proceedings are open to the public.
b. All passed laws are read to the people and available to read.
c. Representatives who make the laws are known and elected by the people.
d. Each citizen has the right to petition his government and be heard.
I enjoyed meeting the rest of the Crowe family-I’m sorry we missed your father.

We took a family history trip this summer with two of our daughters to the states of Idaho and Oregon to visit the communities where Clarissa lived before she went to college. We rented an SUV and drove 3500miles in 12 days and that included three days we spend in a beach house on the Oregon coast. We found almost every house she lived in, took pictures, met relatives, went to church where Clarissa attended as a child and heard lots of good stories about Clarissa’s experiences in these two states. I also got to meet a relative from my mother’s side of the family originally from Denmark and got some great family history including translated copies of Knud Swensen’s Danish journal. It was a great trip.

We have Connie that has taken a job at the University of Texas at El Paso after she received her PHD at the University of Texas at Austin. Kenny is a veterinarian in southern California so we look for new ways to travel to visit them which gives us an opportunity to visit places in California, Arizona and New Mexico where Williams Kelly walked on the Mormon Battalion during the Mexican War. It is hot dry rocky country and I get a great appreciation for him when I visit those places.

I’m surprised at the responses I get when I wear my Isle of Man hat or a shirt to town. One man wanted to talk about the motorcycle races from there and the checkout clerk at the grocery store gave me a greeting in the original Manx language when I went through his line to pay for my groceries.

We are in good health for the health we are in. We still can go anyplace although I don’t drive in the larger cities like Denver and Salt Lake. I turn 70 this month and for my present to myself, I am walking 7 miles to celebrate, one mile for each decade of my life. I try to walk 3.5 miles each day and 6 miles on Friday to get prepared. Carol and Kim are coming from Denver to walk with me along with some friends from here. I am seriously considering volunteering for a Parkinson Disease study to test on humans the effectiveness of a new medication that stops the progression of Parkinson’s disease in mice. The University of Colorado in Denver is conducting these studies

I appreciate your friendship and the value the service you have provided for our family. My sister Ann’s husband Bob passed away this spring. She is moving from the East Coast to Salt Lake to be
Have a great summer. God is good,

Kelly Summers
8-15-2011A