Natalie Nielson MacNeille Nelson

     Natalie Nielson MacNeille Nelson was born December 26 1941, to John Gilbert Nielson and Mazie Alexander Nielson in Shelton, King, Washington, the first of our parents children to be born in a hospital.  At birth she weighed close to five pounds.  Because of the Pearl Harbor attack and subsequent war the windows had to have black paper to cover them.

.  Her parents with her three other siblings moved from Washington where her father was in the lumber business to Utah and then to Idaho where her father went to school in Pocatello, to learn to become a body and fender man. From there they moved to Duchesne, Utah where he worked at a shop and practiced those skills. 

 the family  then moved to Arizona when it was learned that Natalie had contracted Rheumatic Fever, the doctors felt would be better for her health.  From Arizona the family moved to Idaho so her father could go to school and become a Body and Fender man.  From Idaho they moved back to Arizona and again back to Idaho this time to homestead land.   As an adult she stood  4 feet, 11 inches tall  It was while living on our farm on land near Acequia, Minadoka, Idaho that Natalie met and married Leland Kay Olson the 27th of June 1959.  

Their son Dennis was a great comfort to his mother and brought joy into her life, after about a year; Leland and Natalie divorced and to support her young son and herself she moved to Arizona. She worked hard as a single mother to provide for herself and her son.

 On  November 27 1959, Natalie married Clarence Theodore MacNeille II, they brought their families together as one and adopted three more, giving them eight children to raise. Natalie  has  dedicated her life to the care and nurture of her own children and many other children through her work in the  Day care businesses, which their family owned and ran for many years in Arizona.  In 1993 Clarence Ted MacNeille died from a massive heart attack. They had been married about 30 years.

Natalie was living with her mother  when she met and  married Stanley Joseph Nelson on  August 14, 2004. He had been married two times before and passed through the sorrow of seeing them depart this life. So here were two people who had lived through deep trials.  I wrote the following poem for them.

 Stan & Natalie

This man and woman have known other loves

That lighted fires within their breasts;

The joys of children in their home;

The searing pain of their beloved one's death.

They have known the challenges of life on earth,

And garnered strength through faith in Christ,

Our Lord, to carry on.

It seems that God has watched above;

Has seen their suffering; their lonely nights.

Now, he gives to each, the other to love,

For a comfort in their hour of need.

Yes, sweet love has kindled a glowing

Flame within their hearts,

And new life breathes within their beings.

So let the wedding proceed.

Come, rejoice and join with us;

For these two were not meant to be apart!

Written by Julia Nielson Corry

Dedicated to Stan Nelson and Natalie Nielson MacNeille

  They enjoyed seven wonderful companionable years together until Natalie, who had suffered for years with debilitating illnesses was called home on easter Sunday, April 24 2011.