On June 16th, 1995 I came to Utah seeking help in finding information about The Waterman , Gregory Pearce Franklin who had been murdered on the ditch bank on June 16th, 1976. Later that fall, I returned to Utah once more. I received counsel and assistance from the dean of Criminal Law at BYU, Edward Kimball. Edward was the son of the Prophet, Spencer W. Kimball. During our visit, I stayed with friends. One night, I awoke from a dream, startled by the sound of a young child crying. As I lay awake, I rememberd that night of the murder of Greg. As my sister Cherie and I had witnessed the murder, we were ordered by my father and his brother to, Get home. As we entered the dark house, we tip-toed, hoping not to wake our mother and younger brothers. My sister ran her fingers through my hair, seeking dried blood that had covered my face and hair. I was standing only a few feet away at the time the Waterman was beaten to death by a shovel at the edge of the ditch bank. We sat on the edge of my bed in total darkness, other than a little light of the waning full moon coming in the narrow basement window of our bedroom. Upstairs, I could hear the sound of hungry cries my youngest, newborn brother, Ethan. The sound of a baby crying in the night has often brought back the memories of that night. Tonight, the newborn baby in the apartment below me was crying. It was 4:00 am. I lay awake pondering over the lifetime of experiences, trials and blessings that have come through trials. As I reflected I thought about the myriad of directions that have come to me from the Holy Spirit. I have pondered over these directions and followed most of them. There was one prompting that came to me on June 16, 1995 during that first visit back to Utah. I had a dream that night. In the dream, a piece of paper was added to my journal. I watched as invisible hands wrote upon the blank journal page: David E. Sorensen I have read my own journal entries where I wrote down that dream, but the connection to the Waterman, the murder on the ditch bank seemed to be such a mystery. During the past week as Robert Franklin met with detectives to work out the details of finding the other orphaned children of Gregory Franklin, I have been overwhelmed by memories. I have felt that there was something missing, some kind of direction I needed, some kind of help I ought to give to my friend Rob as he struggles with flashbacks and memories of being kidnapped, held hostage in a barn, and being kept as a slave in Draper from June 1976 until the fall of 1994. He was 16 when he was enslaved. He was set free when he was 32. During my visit to Utah in 1995, I was so close to the location where Rob was living with newly found friends in Draper. I was literally across the freeway in Bluffdale, walking the lane with my friend Craig Collett. Craig had many dreams, the same dream, about the murder on the ditch bank. He knew nothing about my sisters, but saw us clearly in the dream. I had never told him about the murder. Yet, he dreamed of the location, the phase of the moon, and the lane. He saw the point of the mountain as a reference to the place the murder had happened. Looking back, I reflect upon what Craig did. He stood in the middle of Redwood Road and faced north toward Camp Williams. His arms outstretched, he pointed west down the Lane at 14200 South... and with his left arm, pointed due East, toward the cemetery, the Prison, Draper, and Lone Peak. Today I understand his movement and his dream. He stood there like a compass. His arms like wings or needles on a compass... Healing would come by following the promptings of the Holy Spirit....like a compass, like a map. The dream about David E. Sorensen repeated this morning just before I was awakened by the hungry cries of a newborn child. I had to look online and see if there was anything that would help me understand why this dream repeats. Amazingly, this talk by him, in April 2003 caught my attention as though it leaped from the screen. I dont remember hearing this talk in conference that year. I was full of bitterness. I was angry that my father had been called to be a bishop, after assisting in the murder and cover up, disposal of the body and the resulting kidnapping of Rob, the Watermans son! I had attempted suicide at the end of 2002 because I was so angry and felt betrayed and let down not only by my brothers, but my mother, and my entire extended family! The icing on that cake of bitterness was being in an emotionally, physically abusive marriage. The fact that my father had become a bishop was staggering to my soul and I collapsed under the weight of that sorrow. By April conference of 2003, I was attending therapy on a weekly basis. My life was in absolute turmoil. Flashbacks and memories ricocheted through my mind constantly. Memories surfaced like buried shrapnel. Even the tiniest piece was excruciating. Perhaps I am finally ready to hear this message by David E. Sorensen. The talk touches on many parallels in my own life... including the story of Joseph in Egypt. My patriarchal blessing speaks of this story in the opening sentences declaring that: Your life will be like unto Joseph, who was cast into a pit and sold into Egypt by his brethren. My six brothers have caused a great rift in our family and have continually condemned their three older sisters for our statements of abuse, murder and the cover-ups that have continued our entire lives. My brothers do not believe their father and their uncle could have committed such crimes! They continue to state that my fathers callings, especially his calling to be a bishop, prove that he is innocent! Unfortunately, they are wrong... However, I forgive them. Someday, when all things are revealed, they will see the events that transpired and that while we were covered in blood in our own Gethsemane, they were sleeping. awokehttps://lds.org/general-conference/2003/04/forgiveness-will-change-bitterness-to-love?lang=eng#watch=video
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 12:14:43 +0000
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