The Story of Derek's Work -- 30 Years!

A bit over thirty years ago we were living in Bountiful in our first house with our first daughter Trisa and we were expecting our second when Derek got laid off.  That was a bit stressful!  One of Derek's Mom's friends, Virginia Q., saw an add in a newspaper -- the print kind of newspaper -- for a job at Nature's Sunshine in Provo.  She thought of Derek and passed it along. Derek got an interview that was to happen when Tia was two weeks old.  Since my sister Tina and her family lived in Wymount at BYU at the time, we headed down together.

Derek had an interview while Trisa played with cousins and I spent time with Tina.  Tia's belly was a little swollen and red and Tina told me it was not normal and I needed to take her to the doctor and so, as soon as the interview was over we headed back to Bountiful and I got her right in.  The doctor told me to go to Primary Children's Hospital right away and so I went to get Derek.  Our good neighbors took Trisa and just as we were getting ready to head out the door to the hospital the phone rang.  It was someone from Nature's Sunshine offering Derek the job.  He said he would take it, and we headed out.

This was today's cake for Derek.

 The whole Tia situation was very scary for us, but she ended up just having a cyst that they removed the next day and coming  home a few days later. 

The job at Nature's Sunshine has obviously been a huge blessing in our lives.  Derek's work has provided for us all of these years, given us good friends, and provided a lot of fabulous adventures around the world.  He has had quite a variety of opportunities to use his many talents, including tact when the management changed and things weren't so easy.

We thought the Grogu (baby Yoda) balloon was a nice touch.

I was sad when the first group of people Derek had worked with started either getting fired or laid off.  They are our friends.  We still enjoy getting together with them whenwe can.  I actually cried when Derek's last boss Eddie left to go work for his church.  He is a really good person, and I enjoyed getting to meet him and his equally awesome wife Alex.  I have no doubt that they are doing a good work for Christ at their church!  It just had been so nice for Derek to have a boss he really liked again.

We are very grateful that Virginia Q. thought of Derek when she saw that Nature's Sunshine needed an employee.  Derek has has so many titles over the years that I quit keeping track and just call him the Nature's Sunshine expert since that seems to be one of his main roles -- telling people what has been done in the past, and why things have and have not worked.

It is rare nowadays to have had a job at the same company for so long!  Hooray for Nature's Sunshine!