The night before her husband’s funeral in January 2017, Primary General President Susan H. Porter remembers snow beginning to fall. By the time she and her family woke up the next morning, “there was a lot of snow,” she recalled.
“One of our sons ran upstairs and said, ‘Mom, we got a problem. The kids that were on the floor, [their] sleeping bags are soaking wet. We can see water just running down the glass door.’ I ran down to take a look, but there was nothing anybody could do other than get ready and go.”
President Porter detailed this experience in a new video released by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on June 28 titled “Never Alone Through Jesus Christ.” She spoke of the overwhelming season of grief and uncertainty after losing her husband, Elder Bruce D. Porter, General Authority Seventy, and how she learned she is never truly alone.
After her husband’s funeral and visiting family members returned home, President Porter had to face the inevitable — fixing the water damage in her home.
“I finally found a contractor who came over and he said, ‘I hate to tell you this, but this is not a leaking door,’” President Porter recalled in the video. The contractor couldn’t start work for a few weeks, so he gave her a list of things to buy to help minimize the damage.
Continuing the story, President Porter said: “It’s January. It’s dark. It’s cold. I’ve got to go to the hardware store, and it’s Friday night. … There’s this couple walking in front of me holding hands, and it just washes over me.”
In that tender state of remembering the loss of her husband, she walked into the hardware store, unsure of what she was buying or where to find it. To make matters worse, she couldn’t find anyone to help her.
“I kept walking up and down [the aisles], trying to find people. And that’s when I just thought, I didn’t know what to do. … So I found an empty aisle, which was easy because all of them were empty, and I just stood there and bowed my head and said a prayer,” President Porter said.
President Porter opened her eyes and thought about what she should do next. A minute later, a friendly employee rounded the end of the aisle, greeted her and asked if she needed help. President Porter handed her the list, and the employee helped her find the items.
“There was no way not to know this was a gift from God,” President Porter testified of what she felt in that simple but powerful moment.
“I was not alone then, and I had never been alone. I think as we go through our lives, we can remember that a loving Heavenly Father sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who experienced all that we experience. And He will never leave us alone.”
