Always Remember Him

by Shalee Timothy

 In D&C 20:77 it says:
Photo from lds.org; used with permission.
O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those who partake of it, that they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy Son, and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him and keep his commandments which he has given them; that they may always have his Spirit to be with them. Amen. 
 How do we remember Christ? We can remember Him by trying to be like Him.

One of the greatest things that the Savior did was to serve and help others. I got to be the recipient of this great service from a few amazing youth that the Lord worked through. We get the opportunity to be the Lord's hands. He works through us, young and old.

We hear this prayer that I started with every week when we partake of the sacrament. It has a new profound meaning to me the past couple of weeks.

I wanted to share an experience I had just a month ago. As many of you know, we own a few FiiZ Drinks stores. Late one Saturday night, one of the employees messaged me asking if I could run in to fix an issue with the soda. I usually never need to run up, but my manager was out of town, so I ran up to see what the problem was.

Right before I had left, we found our five- and two-year-old in our newly finished basement, eating a brand new, full jar of Nutella…with their fingers! To say that I was freaking out would be an understatement. As I was scolding them for “knowing better than eating downstairs AND with their fingers,” I was finding Nutella everywhere: in their hair, on the couches, on the bathroom faucet, sink, light switch, and my freshly cleaned white towels and bath mat. As I continued to find more and more chocolate stains, I looked at my husband and said, “This one is on you. I’m out of here!”



I got in the car and drove to FiiZ, still feeling frustrated. I walked in and asked what was going on so I could fix the issue. At this store, we have a basement where we keep our boxes of soda that pump upstairs to the machines. I walked downstairs, looked at the soda boxes, and within less than two minutes, I was gasping for air. My heart was racing. I felt lightheaded, so I sat at the bottom of the stairs thinking it would go away. It didn’t. It actually got worse.

I began having intense sharp pains in my head. I could feel my brain contracting, trying to get oxygen. I knew something was wrong with me. The pain level was so high that I literally thought I was going to die, then and there. I mentally was checking out.

As I sat on the stair, I grabbed my phone and I just looked at it. I didn’t know how to work it. I didn’t know how to call my husband or 911. At that point, I just knew something was very wrong. I yelled for my employee who was upstairs serving drinks to customers, but as soon as I yelled her name, I knew there was no way she could have heard me over the music and customers in the lobby.

As I sat there waiting to see if she was coming, the pain got worse and worse. I felt like I was dying. I began to try to say a prayer asking for any help to be able to make it so that I could still be here for my kids and husband. As I was doing that, I could see pictures of them in my mind while I sat there in excruciating pain not knowing what to do or how to get out. I was crying, thinking that my poor boys were going to remember me as this mean mom for getting upset at them for eating Nutella.

I was too afraid to stand up because I didn’t want to faint and hit my head. All I could do was hold my head in my hands and say, “I can’t die. I can’t die. My kids need me. Trav needs me.” I then heard footsteps at the top of the stairs, I couldn’t lift my head to see who it was. All I could say was, “Call 911!”

My cute employee was terrified and ran to get help. Two young men came downstairs, and they were asking me questions that I could not answer. I literally could not hear them talking. They were on the phone with 911, and they couldn’t answer any of the dispatcher's questions because I wasn’t coherent. One of the boys coughed and looked at his friend and said, “Can you feel that?” That is the only thing I heard them say! At that point, I knew something was wrong in that room, and I said, “Get out now! We have to get out!”

As I crawled up the stairs, I was crying and yelling, “I can’t die. I can’t die.” We made it upstairs, and the boy on the phone told everyone to get out of the building. As I laid at the top of the stairs crying, I knew I had to get out, but I wasn’t sure how I was going to, due to my brain not functioning. I then felt two ladies, one on each side of me, each take an arm and help me stand up and walk out of the building.

I collapsed right outside of the door and looked up to see the ambulance pulling in. As they evaluated me, they decided it was best to take me to the hospital for testing. That's how they found out that there was a carbon dioxide leak downstairs. What happens when CO2 leaks is it basically sucks the oxygen out of the air. You can’t see it or smell it. So basically, you have no idea it happened. This had been going for over two hours by the time I had gotten there.

The fire chief came to see how I was doing at the hospital, and he told me that when the firefighters went downstairs, they had to leave again to get their oxygen tanks on. He told me that when they went back down, they turned everything off and found out that the oxygen level downstairs was deadly. Just to give you an example, in a normal room the oxygen level is at 21%, at the top of Mount Everest it's 19%, and down in the basement, it was 17%. He asked me if I knew the two boys that helped me and I told him no. He said, “Well, they saved your life.”

At this point, I still didn’t know the details of how everything happened. However, I had to relive it and go back to watch it on our camera system to record the experience for Workers' Comp. A few days after I watched it, I went to visit my poor employee, who was traumatized by what had happened, to hear her side of the story. I asked her how she could have possibly heard me yell her name over the music and the customers.

Her reply was, “I didn’t. It wasn’t your voice. It was a low-toned voice that literally yelled my name. I turned to the other employee who was working and asked her if she had heard it, and she said no. I then realized it was a prompting that I needed to check on you, and that’s when I came running and saw you.” What a miracle that this sweet girl had been so close with Christ and that she listened to the prompting that she heard!

As we were talking, I mentioned to her that I felt two ladies help me stand up and walk out, but after watching the camera footage, I saw that I crawled out of the building by myself. She said, “No, you weren't by yourself! I was out in my car crying, and I looked up and also saw two ladies helping you out!” Again, another miracle.

I know that the Lord sent angels to help save me. I know that the Lord was completely mindful and set up this entire experience for my benefit. It’s the scariest thing that has ever happened to me in my life, and I wouldn’t ever want to go through it again. However, I have learned so much. One of the biggest gifts that came from this experience is understanding my value and importance to the Lord in a way I did not know before. This experience has changed my life. It’s hard for me to put into words how, but deep down, I feel like a completely different person.

I have always struggled with self-worth and having self-confidence. I was made fun of growing up, and it took such a toll on me that I still, to this day, struggle with it. After this experience, it has opened my eyes to a whole new meaning of ME. Heavenly Father was there. He knew what I wanted and needed! He knew that I have struggled with this for so long that he wanted to show me how much I was truly loved and needed here.

I will be forever grateful for this experience and for how it has changed me. It has given me a whole new perspective on what matters and my relationships with others.

Nutella on white towels isn’t such a big deal to me now. I’ve been caught up in working so much the past three years that I haven’t been the mom I’ve wanted to be. This experience has also made me realize that work can wait. My family comes first, no matter what. When we are in tune with the Spirit, the Lord can speak to us and direct us.

We are remembering Him when we go to Him, listen to the Spirit, and seek after His will. It will bring us closer to Him, and it builds a stronger relationship between us. For us, it takes work and effort to try to always remember him. But for the Lord, it’s easy. He always remembers us and is always there.

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