10 Jul 2026, Friday
10 Jul 2026
Prioritized Daily Task
12:00 noon - Viewing before the funeral
2:00 pm - Charlie Hibbert's funeral
I was up at 8am, had prayer, showered, and shaved. I called and talked to Debbie. We had prayer together. Work is progressing on the remodeling upstairs. Max and I had breakfast, and at noon I drove up to the Church in Cedartown for the viewing of Charlie Hibbert's body before the funeral started at 2:00pm
4:00pm - graveside services; dedication of grave by Jonathan Hibbert at Rome Memorial Park on west side of Hwy 27 in south Rome
6:00pm - Dinner with the Hibbert family at the Cedartown Branch.
Wendal Benion and his dad
Janett, Jennifer's friend. Janett is the same age as Rae Lynn; her husband is a doctor and moved to Rome and works at Redmand Park Hospital. They live with her parents, Greg and Donna Bear. She has a brother, Robert, and half-brothers, Jonathan, Michael, ? and a sister, Rachel. Janett and her husband live in the same house as her parents and have 3 children that Greg and Donna watch. I hardly remember her, but she was at the funeral to support Jennifer. The Cedartown Branch President, Paul Fasney, conducted. Ronnie Crane, Margaret Crane Hibbert, moved from Blacks Bluff Road a short distance from where Charlie and Margaret lived. He now lives in Alabama. I met Emlie Hibbert, Charlie and Lara's daughter's husband, Holland Vaughn. Louis and Rindy Campbell attended the funeral. Devin brought his dad, Earlton Youngblood, to the visitation, funeral, and interment with the dedication of the grave. Debbie, Max's wife, bought flowers at the florist and took to the church for the funeral service from her and Max, and also bought flowers to give from me and my wife, Debbie.
After the dedication of Charlie's grave by his son, Jonathan, I went back to the church in Cedartown, and food and drinks were provided for family and friends. I came back to Max and Debbie's and visited with Max until after midnight. Beth called and is coming up Sunday, July 26, with Paul for him to meet me, and Debbie and Michael if he is in town. Paul wants to meet us and introduce Beth to his parents. I called and talked to Debbie. We had prayer together, and I got to bed at about 2am.
Carrie, Thomas, Andrew, Marigold Hibbert
Note: Charlie Hibbert’s funeral, Friday 10th July 2026
The goal or goals Heavenly Father wants me to accomplish from attending and speaking at Brother Charlie Hibbert’s funeral. Those who attend, to learn of Thee and Thy Son, Jesus Christ.
Their testimony of Thee and Thy work increase.
Their love for Thee and ALL thy children to increase.
{Notes from my journal about Charlie and his family.}
*Charlie Hibbert, Notes from my journals – a short timeline where our lives intersected
*In June and July 1987, I went home teaching with Jeffrey Hilbert, Charlie's oldest son.
*Sunday, June 19, 1988, Charlie had a family reunion in Power Springs. He was unable to come to church.
*February 8, 1989, Marigold drove up from Calhoun to see Jeff.
*March 27, 1989, Charlie drove up to Trenton, Georgia, to put a freezer in at a nursing home. With the freezer, it made it possible to feed the elderly and old that lived there. When Charlie came up to Trenton, Dade County, Georgia, he brought his family with him, all of them except Jeff, who was on a mission in Utah.
*April 1, 1989, Saturday, I met with Jeff's mission president, President Woodrow Shumway, and his wife from Ogden, Utah.
*Thursday, January 11, 1990, the missionaries taught Jonathan and Jennifer. Charlie and his wife sat in on the lessons to know what their children were being taught. Jeff was there for the lesson.
*Sunday, January 14, 1990, Jeff baptized Jonathan and (Jennifer).
*Saturday, the 27th of January 1990, Jeff and Marygold's wedding. Matthew, my son, went with us to the temple but was not old enough to attend the wedding. So he did proxy work for my dad, his grandfather, James Olin McAlpin, at the Atlanta Georgia Temple.
*Sunday, March 4, 1990, Michael, my son, and I went home teaching to Charlie and his family.
*Sunday, March 18, 1990, Jonathan received the Aaronic Priesthood and was ordained a deacon. Jeff set Marygold apart as a Sunday School teacher.
*September 9, Sunday, 1990, Marygold was set apart as the first counselor in the Young Women's Presidency.
*Wednesday, the 26th of September, 1990, Charlie offered a prayer to Heavenly Father and Jeff, and I gave him a blessing.
*November 22, 1990, Wednesday, their mother, Margaret Hibbert, was baptized. The mission president, President Fowler, spoke at the baptism.
*Sunday, the 25th of November 1990. Charlie's membership records were read in the church and he was sustained, received the Aaronic Priesthood, and ordained a priest. Jonathan was sustained and ordained a teacher.
*It was cold day in December 1990 and Charlie came and got the heat going in the patients' rooms in the nursing home.
September 26, 1992, Saturday, Matthew and I went home teaching but Charlie's family was not home. Matthew and I went to see James and Gail Craig, Marygold's parents. James is on the list for a transplant. His heart is only pumping at 30%.
*October 14, 1992, Wednesday, Charlie put the patients in the nursing home ahead of all his other customers.
*November 15, 1992, Sunday, Raylen, my young daughter, made cookies and we took them to the Hilbert’s. Jennifer was the only one home. Charlie and Margaret had taken their son Jonathan down to Auburn to visit with Jeff and Marigold, to see the Georgia and Auburn football game.
*I have not mentioned so many very important people in Charlie’s family: Shirley, his wife who loved and cared for him. Emile, who loved her Grandfather more than words can ever tell; her mother, Jonathan’s wife, Lara; and Jeffrey and Marigold's children Carrie, Thomas, and Andrew. There are so many individuals that Charlie’s life touched; please forgive me for not mentioning you. I haven’t mentioned or told any stories about their watch dogs, the dogs they kept at their home in Rome, Dobermans and Rottweilers, even when they moved out to the country at the edge of Rome.
As we journey through the seasons of life, there
is a time for all things. A time to be born, a time to live, a time to serve, a time to die, and a time to be judged.
Charlie was a man of integrity. Like Joshua, when a time came in his life to choose whom he would serve, he said, facing the children of Israel, “choose you this day whom ye will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:15
Charlie and I talked about likening the scriptures to ourselves. He loved the Lord, and he loved his family. There is nothing he or his wife would not do for their children and grandchildren.
The question that Judah asked: "For how shall I go up to my father, and the lad be not with me? lest peradventure I see the evil that shall come on my father. (Genesis 44:34) This symbolizes a covenant responsibility to ensure our families are sealed and returned safely to Heavenly Father together, upholding our promises to each other. Charlie and I have asked ourselves this same question: "How shall I go up to my Father and the lads and lasses not be with me?" lest peradventure I see the sorrow that shall come on my Father.
As the rivers flow into the sea, so do the days of our life flow into eternity, and it is going to matter very little how much money we made, what kind of house we lived in, what kind of car we drove, or the size of our bank account. What is going to matter in the eternities is the influence my dear wife and I made on the life of a child.
Blessings and cursing are natural consequences of our relationship with God. We have our free agency to choose, but it is not free. It cost Heavenly Father one-third of all his children in the pre-earth life and the life of His only begotten son, Jesus Christ, in this life. That is why we are free to choose life or death. It is our choice. When we make wrong choices, which we do; it is true we can repent and start over, because of the atonement of Christ. But we cannot choose the consequences or the affect our words and actions have on others living and future generations, children not yet born. Like a stone thrown out into the sea of eternity, the ripple effect of our actions goes on forever.
The lyrics of the song we sang to our children. The song they learned in Primary, “Choose the Right.” May this be our motto as we leave this funeral today: THAT WE ALL WILL ALWAYS CHOOSE THE RIGHT is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ.
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