Brother Olive
Tim Olive is my double brother. He is my brother in the gospel and my brother in Masonry. My only regret where that good man is concerned is, I never met him.
My wife, Dearest Love knew him.
Some years ago, she served an honorable mission after having converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When the mission call came she found that she was to serve in Southern California. Then, just as it is now, the cost of living in that part of the United Sates was high.
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Indeed, the cost for housing was such that the missionaries just couldn’t afford it. The Mission President, recognizing the severity of the problem, approached the Wards in his mission and announced no congregation would be assigned missionaries unless they housed them.
Mormon congregations love the missionaries. Most of those Wards figured out how to make it happen. Like other families in that part of the world, the Olive family decided to open their home to a missionary companionship at much lower than usual cost for rent.
The Olive’s were good people and a lovely family. Tim and Becky had four sons. Becky’s father lived with them. The house was full of people, full of love, full of faith, and with the addition of two sister missionaries – maybe just a little over full.
Dearest Love was one of the missionaries that resided in the Olive home during her missionary service. She often tells stories of her time in the mission field. Among the happiest of those stories are the ones that fall within the period of time that she lived with the Olive family.
Brother Olive was born in Tonga. He was the youngest of several boys. All of Tim’s brothers were giants standing more than 6’5” each. Tim on the other hand, was but 5’8”. Like his brothers he was immensely strong but, having been born with Polio, his growth was adversely affected.
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As a boy in Tonga, struggling with Polio, there was not adequate medical services to properly treat and help him. Candidly, the cost of those services, had they been avalable, was beyond his family’s means. In addition to being much shorter than his brothers, one of Tim’s legs was shorter than the other one. He wore special braces, special shoes, and walked with a limp.
Despite his challenges or perhaps, in defiance of them, Tim worked hard. He had a good job at Boeing. He was a faithful Latter-day Saint who served a mission in Canada. He loved his family.
Tim was also a Mason and as a part of his Masonic path, a Shriner.
Polio struck Tim very early in life. As there was no adequate care, or means with which to pay for care, his family sought help beyond their immediate community. When the local Masonic Lodge became aware of their needs, the Olive family was put in touch with the Shriner’s Hospitals for Children in Hawaii.
Young Tim was flown from Tonga to Hawaii where he began his treatment at the Shriner’s hospital. Tim’s family was flown in to visit their son twice a year. However, they could not afford to remain there with him. Neither could they afford to fly him back and forth. In order for Tim to receive the important medical care he desperately needed, he remained at the Shriner’s Hospital for Children in Hawaii year round for many years.
Dearest Love has often recounted to me that Becky, Tim’s wife, often told her, “When Tim was little new nurses would occasionally come to work at the hospital. When they met Tim they typically asked, ‘where do you live?’ to which Tim always replied, ‘I live here.’ No, no, I mean where are you from, where do you come from? Tim, having lived so long in the hospital and from such a young age, couldn’t remember any other home and said, ‘I come from here. This is my home.’”
Young Brother Olive received the best possible care for Polio at the Shiner’s Hospital for Children. Not only did he receive excellent care but, he was treated kindly and with love by the doctors and nurses there. Though his family could not be there with him often or for long, they were able to see him at least twice a year. The care that he received, many years of care, was provided to him and his family free of charge. His family was provided a means to travel back and forth and given living accommodations while there at no cost to them.
This is true for the many thousands of children who are treated each year at Masonic care centers all over the United States. The Shriner’s Hospitals, Clinics, and Burn Centers for Children, The Scottish Rite Hospital and Speech and Language Pathology Centers for Children, and research funded by the York Rite are all examples of Masonic medical charities that provide millions of dollars a day to make the world better by treating children and making their lives and the lives of their family’s better.
In time, young Tim grew up. With the help of the Shriner’s hospital, he overcame Polio and went on to be an able, productive, hard working man, husband, father, faithful Latter-day Saint and enthusiastic Mason. He and his wife Becky opened their home to provide safe shelter to the Mormon missionaries so that his congregation could enjoy the blessings that come with having missionaries assigned to them.
Tim, in the spirit of giving back, not only joined the Masonic Lodge but went on to become a devoted Shriner. Dearest Love has often related to me her surprise at seeing Brother Olive return home from those weird meetings he went to, wearing his suit and a fez.
I enjoy writing and talking about those various meeting places in mine and my family’s everyday life at the intersections of our Latter-day Saint faith and Masonic fraternity. Dearest Love’s experience with the Olive family is a particularly sweet one.
Curiously, another fraternal Brother and personal friend of mine related to me that when he was but a boy, his mother rented a room in their home to a pair of Latter-day Saint Sister Missionaries. My good friend has been a Mason for some 45 years. He is the Right Eminent Grand Commander of the York Rite Masonic Body known as The Knights Templar.
My fraternal brethren are very kind to me about my faith. They know that it is important to me and seem to look for opportunities to connect with me in some way. Very often I am asked, “Brother Hank, you are a Mormon, is that right?”
“It is.”
Then I hear things like, “My mother in law is a member of your church or my wife grew up as a Mormon or though I am not a member, I have read the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price how do you like that?”
Each time someone seeks to connect with me in this very kind way, I cannot help but find my heart warmed towards them.
Masonry is not a church. It is a fraternity. To be a Mason one must be a man, must believe in a Supreme Being, and must seek membership of his own free will. Religion is important in Masonry as no atheist is knowingly admitted. Each Lodge has a holy bible on its altar. Masonry is a respecter of religion but we do not discuss secular religion or politics within our Lodges as there is no surer or faster way to divide men.
Given this, the eagerness I see in my brethren to make these kinds of connections with me, cannot be anything less than heart warming. It demonstrates a generosity of spirit that is worthy of them and that I hope they see me reciprocating.
When I was a young Mason back in Beautiful, East Texas I was impressed with the Shrine. I knew, even then, that there was much good being done in the world as a result of the efforts of those good men. When I joined the Sharon Shrine Center there in, Beautiful, I had little interest in the various clubs but found purpose in participating in the monthly blood drive.
Each month we hosted the American Red Cross’s Blood Bus in a particular parking lot for several hours. All the Masonic Lodges in the region turned out in number to support the effort. The Brothers, their wives, families, friends, and neighbors came to donate blood. The members of the local Shrine worked to prepare fresh hamburgers, cheese burgers, hot dogs, sausages, chips, fresh vegetables, buns – toasted or untoasted, and ice cold sody-waters free of charge for the benefit of all who supported that laudable endeavor.
My goodness at the blood we collected there. Every month, barrels and barrels of blood! All of it was provided for use by the Shriner’s hospital in Shreveport, Louisiana which was the nearest Shriner’s hospital to us there in, Beautiful.
There are endless opportunities to do good in the world.
Likewise, there are countless men and women willing to do their individual parts. There are two places I see this most often.
In houses of faith and worship and in my fraternal activity.
I do not mean to say that these things only happen in the Latter-day Saint faith – goodness no!
Men and women of every faith are doing so much good in the world. It gives me joy to be a witness to it!
Some years ago when serving as the Executive Secretary to the Stake President of the Washington D.C. Stake of the Chruch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we had a General Authority visit and give us special instruction. He observed to us, “There was a time that we wanted to convert everyone to our faith. Now we see the importance of encouraging men and women everywhere to be faithful members of their various churches no matter what that church is or where it may be. We see how critical it is that men and women of faith be active in their faith for the sake of society and the sake of the world!”
I do not need my family, friends, or neighbors to be of my faith. I am glad simply to find myself in the company of men and women of any faith. Whether great or small. Whether a spark or an inferno. The world is made better as a consequence of men and women exercising their faith for the benefit of those around them.
Likewise, the world is made better by those actively engaged in good works. No group, organization, religion, or charity has the market cornered on good works.
There is so much good to be found if we are willing to recognize it in others. I can’t help but think there are far greater opportunities to increase the scope of these if we look for occasions to join together to make the world around us better by combining our efforts and resources.
Some of you listening to this podcast have been very generous in partnering with me in the past to make the world better. I hope you know how I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you!
I hope that there will be future opportunities to do likewise at the intersection of faith and fraternity – where ever that may be for you.
For me, that wonderful intersection is found where Freemasonry crosses paths with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
I think the same must have been true for Brother Tim Olive. I wish I could have known him. Sadly, Tim died several years ago. Thankfully not before my bride was able to experience his kindness and that of his family first hand. She got to see that good Mormons could also be good Masons and vice versa.
To my eternal joy and gratitude – she went on to marry just such a man.
Much Love,
Hank
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