BY JOHN HATCH
AS TOLD TO HIS GRANDDAUGHTER, AFTON HATCH
INCIDENT OCCURS IN SPRING 1910
      John Standifird and I loaded freight at Holbrook, Ariz. Our loads consisted of rock salt, some small and some big and some of it sacked. ... We had to go down an incline into a cellar; there were six steps and it was very wet and raining. While I was packing a block of salt weighing about 140 lbs., I slipped on the incline and fell on my back and the salt fell on my stomach. I finished unloading and started home. We were camped out and after supper I began to get sick. I didn't sleep that night and the next morning didn't eat. We drove all afternoon and then camped again. I still didn't eat or sleep that night.
     I got home about noon the next day; I had a little to eat and was sick. In eleven days I had had no pass and was very miserable. We had a family prayer and the elders came in and administered to me. Grandma Standifird, Vivian Shumway, Aunt Ann Shumway, Will Hatch and several other folks were there. Will and Uncle Lee Shumway administered to me. Everyone knelt down by my bed. They all prayed after the administration. While they were praying around my bed my spirit left my body. A black hole opened up through the ceiling of my room. Up I went and entered into a space. In that space it was light as noon day sun for as far as I could see. There were fine buildings--great homes--as far as the eye could see. The roads were straight and wide and there were fine homes on each side. To the guardian I said: "I see my father (Lorenzo Hill Hatch), let me go and meet him."
     "You can't go," said the guardian.
     "I want to go."
     "No, you can't."
     "Why can't I go? I want to go."
     The guardian said, "If there is faith enough here in this prayer to keep you on this earth you'll have to stay."
     "But I don't want to stay. See, my father waves to me."
     "I know, but you can't go until they get through with this prayer."
     They all prayed until it came to Sterling (John's eight-year-old boy). He offered a prayer. The guardian, who to this day I would know if I saw him again, said to me, "You'll have to go back, that boy has more faith than the rest of them put together."
     "Yes, but it is dark."
     "Yes, I know it is a dark and dreary world you're living in, but you see those stars? They are the priesthood of God. There are more that want the priesthood of God; they are the only light in this world. The world is dark but has stars for its light. The minds of men are dark."
     So I came back, but the suffering was great. ... My stomach had been cut in two by the rock salt and there was a healing process happening--just like the welding of two irons together in my stomach. But from that day on I have never had any bother.

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Surprised in Church
George Phineous Hatch surprises his wife, Dora, by naming their 11th child Quola Mae.