"kindness is contagious- catch it"

I can't remember if I ever heard her say those words, but when I read the words in the article and when they said those were the words she lived by I saw and heard her saying them in my mind. I'm pretty sure I heard her say it once or twice: "Kindness is contagious- catch it." She was always sharing good quotes. She told me friends and family thought it was ridiculous but she had a whole wall in her room covered in her favorite quotes.

The words weren't real when a fellow friend from Ukraine told me of the tragic plane crash that took Mandy's life. (ksl article: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=4092033) Mandy and I were visiting teaching companions in Ukraine. We were also both on the enrichment committee. We didn't teach at the same school so I am grateful for our church callings together. Honestly, I didn't think about whether or not I would ever see Mandy once we returned to America because we weren't super close. She was a true friend, though... always welcoming, real, and there for me just to talk or laugh or go do something. The two of us were so set to get a little hut on the beach in Yalta and spend the whole week there doing absolutly nothing... because we deserved it. We lamented together about the number of cathedrals we were dragged to on our Ukrainian tour of Prauge, Dresden, and Krakow. We sat outside the salt mines on the bus and talked. She introduced me to sesame seed covered white chocolate poppy seed ice cream bars...seriously delish. We shared one another's anticipation to go home and be with family and friends again. I asked her what she was going to have for dinner the night we got home. She said her mom was driving to Salt Lake to pick her up and that they would eat at a restaraunt and stay over night before returning to Hurricane, UT the next morning. The thing she looked forward to most was that car ride home- just she and her mom.

I'm grateful my image and memories of Mandy are so vivid. In my reflections the past few days, and as I think about who Mandy is, how she spent her time here, and what she believed in and lived for I feel the depth of her touch in my life. It is death's bitter irony to open my eyes by closing another's. Reality is still hard to comprehend. It seems unreal, so sudden. The past few days have been slow. I'm grateful. I have had time to ponder lots, including the majesty of an all-powerful and ever-merciful, loving Heavenly Father. Having been around Mandy, having served at her side I understand why He who knows all and seeks first the eternal happiness of all His children would have called His beautiful and valiant daughter to work on the other side of the veil, if it is what He sees is best. While comfort and confidence comes from truth, it doesn't take away the loss, the heavy aching heart. My heart and sympathy and thoughts and prayers go out to her family and friends who know and love her most. I am so sorry. She was amazing to be around.

I truly believe that through the grace of Christ her spirit of optimism, her smile, and her light continues to eminate, changing those who treasure it for good. It has been so for me.

Mandy, Desi, me

Mandy, me, Oksanna, Alison, Hilary, Jaime, Michelle

Hurricane, UT—Mandy Johnson, age 20, died in a plane crash Friday, August 22, 2008. She was born March 5, 1988 in St. George, Utah, to Bevin Johnson and Susan Sandberg Johnson. Mandy had recently become engaged to Scott Barney of Hatch, Utah.Mandy’s motto in life was “kindness is contagious—catch it,” and her unwavering smile brought joy to everyone she met. As a student at Hurricane High, Mandy participated in tennis, the Future Farmers of America, and various pageants. She was currently pursuing a communications degree at Southern Utah University.
Mandy is survived by her parents, Bevin and Susan Johnson of Hurricane, Utah; brothers Golden (Kendra) Johnson of LaVerkin, Utah, Met (Maridee) Johnson of LaVerkin, Utah, and Whitney (Tiffany) Johnson of Cedar City, Utah; a sister Amy (Jared) Frost of Henderson, Nevada; and 11 adoring nieces and nephews.
Funeral services will be Thursday, August 28, 2008 at 11:00 a.m. at the Hurricane Stake Center at 677 S 700 W. Friends and family may call Wednesday, August 27, from 6-8 p.m. at Spilsbury Mortuary in Hurricane at 140 N Main Street, and on Thursday, August 28 from 9:30-10:30 a.m. at the Hurricane Stake Center. Interment will take place in the Hurricane cemetery.Arrangements are made under the direction of Spilsbury Mortuary, 110 S Bluff Street, St. George, Utah, (435) 673-2454.
Mandy's ultimate goal was to live life to the fullest and live happy.

A Writing from Before

(In memory and love)

Dear Haley,

We had life, you and I. Yes, as kindergarteners we had the world as it is so longed for by those caught in the race of time. A life of dried glue flaking off our tiny fingertips. And our new school outfits transformed into dancing kaleidoscopes of paint: swirling blues, purples, reds, and yellows. That was our life.
We had weeks of climbing that twisty green slide. The thick air in that 12-foot tube still chokes me as we scuffle, heaving to the top. Those were our weeks.
We had days in the swimming pool. Oh those Gilbert summers with hot, hot sidewalks. The ten steps to the gate made us feel like coal-walkers, dancing across a singeing river of red. You couldn't swim, so I suspended your arms as you kicked with all your might. Then the foam from your effort would rise up and encircle us tauntingly, but those were our days.
Then time grew, along with the miles between us. Catastrophe smacked your already failing heart into that unfeeling bed. It was the cold hospital room and the IV embedded into the thick purple vein visible through the paper skin on your hand that brought me back, but I was there and it was our hour. An hour of more than clashing instruments in the next room over and a nurse's soft hum as she mundanely walks past. I ignored the crusted pain etched yellow in your face. You smiled for me. You always did...
An hour and then seconds. Seconds where your one embrace opened my eyes to the irony death cultivates, seconds richer than life. Accumulated seconds once filled with busywork became individual seconds of pink-kissed blossoms spotting the tree outside my window.
Oh Haley! We had life, you and I. Yes, we had life and weeks and days and that hour and a second which turned into nothing. But when I remember to step back and value the worth of individual seconds, we have the world again, as it is so longed for by those caught in the race of time.

Forever, my friend.
Kami