It was a few days before our son, Sam, was leaving for his mission to South Africa. We were in the kitchen marking off the list of “what to bring.” One item on the list was his genealogy fan chart. We had printed it off and were looking at it.

”I wonder who will be your special guardian on your mission, Sam?” I asked. He looked at the chart and, guessingly, said, “Probably Jacob Felix.”

Jacob Felix was a grandpa on my husband’s side. Dave (my husband) explained, “I bet he’d be a great guardian as he traveled over from Switzerland to NYC, then to SLC all by himself as a child.” Jacob’s family was like so many who sacrificed all and sent each child to Utah as they could afford. “Grandpa Felix always told of the miracle of a woman in white meeting him at the train station and leading him to a family that spoke German.”

After a few minutes, I went over to collect my genealogy papers and put them back into my binder my dad had made for me. They were scattered about and one of the pages of an old Book of Remembrance was flipped open. This Book of Remembrance was written by my dad’s grandmother, Mina. I noticed the name of Jacob Felix in one paragraph. It caught my attention for two reasons: 1) Because we were just talking about him and 2) He was my husband’s great grandfather. There, in my great grandma’s writing, it said the following:

“I grew up the second oldest child in a family of seven children including a foster brother named Jacob Felix. Jacob lived with us during his teen years as he awaited the arrival of his family from Switzerland. We spoke German as he was from the same Swiss village as mother.” 

It was a fun phone call to my dad and to Dave’s dad explaining that our great grandparents had grown up together in Hinckley, Utah. It was also a testament of how our families are tied together in purpose in ways we don’t even know. I can see our great grandparents laughing as we met and married and aligned our families forever. What are the chances?

-Michelle Larsen, Granite View Stake