I first met the Bridges in Ohio when I was a missionary there. Alvin had already been baptized but I was transferred to the area just before Genell was to be baptized. I had the privilege of teaching some of the last lessons she received just before her baptism.
This is me (on the right), and my companion, with Genell at her baptism.
These two were the most incredible couple and we enjoyed watching them grow in the gospel. Alvin was ordained an Elder a year later and was teaching Elder's Quorum lessons almost immediately. This was in about 1983.
A couple of years later, I was back home and sitting in church when I turned around to find a huge surprise! The Bridges were sitting a few rows back with their entire family. They had actually moved right into my home ward (Mesa 40th Ward, Mesa South Stake). I couldn't believe it. There sat this most wonderful family that I had met on my mission.
Alvin & Genell Bridges in 1983.
That was the beginning of an email dialogue that went on these couple of years. He told me of his struggles and mostly of his experiences with Genell and her severe health problems. She has been incapacitated for a very long time and he seemed very weighed down by all that he was going through. We went back and forth with these emails and each of us sharing our post-Ohio lives.
I never ran into him at the store or at church or anywhere else for that matter. It seems strange. Now, he's gone and all those memories come back of that very special connection so long ago.
Alvin Bridges will be missed by this former Ohio missionary.
Ike
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