Harold Trimble - An Example of Service

Yesterday at the prompting of the Spirit, Wayne set aside the fill-in talk he had prepared for sacrament meeting and instead told some stories about Brother Trimble, who we consider to be the epitome of living a Christ-like life of service (which turned out to be the theme of the meeting). I knew he had shared these stories before and fortunately this morning I was able to find them written in his own words. I'm recording them here so others can be edified and encouraged by Brother Trimble's example.

Harold D. Trimble 1933 - 2003

Harold Trimble, when I first met him years ago, was dying of cancer.  He had to quit his job because he was no longer able to work.  His wife supported the family on a secretary’s salary; he stayed home and took care of the domestic chores.  A few years later, we moved into his ward where he was the high priest group leader.  By this time he was in pretty bad shape.  He was in and out of the hospital for surgeries several times a year.  Yet he deliberately scheduled his surgeries on a Monday so he could be in his meetings the following Sunday.  He was so full of tubes and valves that if you took an x-ray he would look like the plumbing aisle at Home Depot.

Brother Trimble lived a life of service, even in spite of his physical condition.  He had a widow sister that he home taught.  On one visit he noticed that her floor had begun to sag.  He got a friend of his to come over and help him one day.  They went to this sister’s house, jacked it up, and installed a steel beam under the house and fixed the floor.  Another day he saw our young son pushing his bike down the street and asked him what had happened.  The bike frame had cracked at a joint.  That Sunday he asked me to bring the bike over during the week.  He had some welding equipment in his garage and fixed the frame.  I could go on for hours.

Weston and his bike - April 1989

Harold Trimble set the spiritual tone of service for the ward.  One night the priest quorum had planned to go over to a widowed sister’s yard and mow the lawn, prune the bushes and do some weeding.  When they got to the house they found the yard had been freshly gardened.  You guessed it.  Brother Trimble had been there the day before and done everything.

But to the credit of the quorum, the priests decided to cruise the neighborhood to see if anyone else’s yard needed help.  They came to another, younger, widow’s house.  Her yard was usually passable, but that night it looked as if it had been neglected for a few weeks.  The priests knocked on the door to obtain permission to perform the service but no one was home.  They then decided to do the yard and not tell anyone about their service project.  They wanted to be anonymous.  The service was quickly performed and the activity concluded.

I will never forget the following Sunday in church, which was fast and testimony meeting.  That sister stood up and bore her testimony about how her yard really needed some attention, but she knew she hadn’t been to the temple for some time and felt a real need to be there that night.  With reluctance she left her unkempt yard and went to the temple.  She testified with tears running down her cheeks that when she returned home she found that she had been the recipient of a miracle.  Angels had taken care of her yard while she was away.

As I looked around at the priests during her testimony, I saw a lot of eyes being wiped dry.  These young men had been responsible for a miracle in someone’s life.  In quorum meeting they all promised to keep it a secret forever.  To this day, I don’t think this sister knows who those angels were.  (I think she believes it was the three Nephites.)  Brother Trimble was the catalyst for this miracle.

Riverdale 1st Ward Priest Quorum activity - climb Mt. Timp - August 1990

Wayne Whitaker, excerpt from talk in sacrament meeting, 10 September 2000