LINDA LEE AVARELL MOAT'S RESPONSE TO HER SISTER, HOPE AVARELL HILTON

(Sunstone Magazine Issue 83 September 1991)

(Annalee's younger daughter)

I would like to say the following, since Annalee Skarin was also my mother.

I lived in that wonderful home for twenty-one years. I was sixteen years old when my mother left home in 1943. I have only happy memories of what transpired there.

My sister, Hope Hilton, told me a few years ago that her purpose in life was to prove to the world that our mother was insane so that God would hold Annalee blameless for her actions. Where is the proof of insanity? Is there a doctor's report? No, only my sister's diagnosis and words over and over again. Only her own bitter opinions, mostly developing from her shattered pride when our mother was excommunicated in 1952.  I would like to put the facts straight. It is false that my mother reverenced the mother superior or the Catholic nuns at the school where she taught. I remember that her remarks upon this subject were always in the negative. Nor would she have anything to do with the supernatural. When that subject came up, there was always a negative lecture for us.

My father earned the money and paid the bills, and then he paid tithing on what money was left. Once, when we were heavily in debt, my mother begged my father to let her pay the bills, and she promised that she would get the debts straightened out. He finally gave in, and the first thing she did was pay a full tithing-ten percent on the gross earnings. She always bore a beautiful testimony to us on the value of tithing and how she got the family out of debt by honoring this principle.

As far as I understand, my mother's only personal connection with Aimee Semple MacPhearson was that they attended school together. Aimee never was her role model. Hope wrote that there was never talk of a family reunion. Travel in the 1930s was not so easy to come by when her family was spread over four different states. Family members were all poor and hard-pressed for money. But how can my sister forget my mother's family reunion in Salt Lake City and our many trips to Mesa, Arizona, where we stayed with Annalee's sister, Eda? We also made visits to her other sisters out of state.

Hope calls my mother "a loner," which is strange indeed. My mother was not a social butterfly, nor did she care for parties, but as far as being a loner, never! Our home was constantly filled with her personal friends who knew and loved her.

I have never met a happier person in my life or a person who radiated more love and joy than my mother.

Linda Lee Avarell Moat

Duchesne, UT

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AN INVESTIGATOR'S DEFENSE OF ANNALEE

(Sunstone Magazine Issue 15:1)

As a long time admirer of Annalee Skarin, I have read all of Annalee's books, and any other material I could locate about her in the hope of understanding the whole phenomenon. I have also made it a point to get to know both of her daughters, Hope and Linda, in an attempt to unravel the mystery of Annalee Skarin.

I was introduced to her writings in 1971 when a Jewish friend who was a psychologist asked me to read Ye Are Gods and then demanded to know why the Mormon church would excommunicate such a wonderful woman. I had no answers, as I found Annalee's book very inspiring. Her books have inspired numerous readers over the years and the ones I have met were truth seekers and discerning people of all ages. Can all of us be wrong?

It is hard to understand Hope's extreme feelings about her mother and her need to discredit Annalee's life's work when Linda feels just the opposite. Linda had a very close bond with her mother because of her early illness and miraculous healing and the accompanying vision which they experienced together. Perhaps Hope felt left out.

Virginia Bourgeous, Syracuse, UT

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