Rita's stuff & such: A cross to bear...

Here are some of my mom's crosses. Her religious beliefs were very complicated, to say the least. She was baptized LDS (Mormon) as a child, but left the church after her parents' divorce. During college (in the late 50s & early 60s) she dabbled with Wiccanism and became a devout atheist. She struggled with prescription drug addiction and alcoholism, but her main anguish came from a lack of a relationship with a Higher Power. In 1977, she found that Higher Power through Alcoholics Anonymous and it gave her the strength to give up alcohol and drugs. A few years later, her belief in a Higher Power gave her the strength to give up cigarettes. She grew in her faith and after joining the Unity Church, found a calling in Missouri to work in the Silent Unity Prayer Room, where she became a lay minister and prayed with people from all over the world. During that time, she also reconnected with her Mormon roots. She later retired to St. George, Utah, when she found out her only sister had cancer. She lived out her life in St. George as a recluse, as health issues forced her to retreat farther and farther into her own world. Regardless, at the end my mother loved the idea of a Benevolent God Father figure who would welcome everyone into His Mansions, where there are many rooms. I learned religious tolerance from her.