Raphael's illness

In May 1953, when Dad invited daughter Barbara to accompany him on a business trip to Utah, it was planned that she would stay with her mother in-law in Pleasant Grove while Dad took a couple of days to take care of his business. Perhaps it was with the intent to collect loaned money owed him. It is not an unreasonable projection that he may have felt a premonition to make this trip as part of getting his personal affairs in order. As it turned out - premonition or not - it was a very timely trip as the beginning of his illness started showing more significant signs within a few weeks after his return from Utah. But he had made it a fun trip, although it was a necessary one.

In mid 1953, Dad's eyes showed a different look, thought maybe he wasn't getting enough rest. But he was unstoppable and went on with his regular activities throughout the summer months just the same, although he slowed down some. It was not yet understood what the trouble was.

Then in the early fall of 1953 he came down with the flu, but he didn't get feeling any better afterwards. He developed a decreasing vitality and nagging pain, which would prove out to be the onset of pancreatic cancer, although he would not know that until a year later. 

At this early stage an aspirin would kill the pain, and perhaps he saw no need to say anything about it to anyone, which would be typical of Dad, for he was not a complainer. At this point in time he was still able to work, simultaneously doing stake missionary service, and giving Patriarchal Blessings. 

Raphael's activity continued, and it was during this period of late 1953 and early 1954 that Dad and son DeVon were serving together on that stake mission to White Swan. This gave the two men some special time together to enjoy one another's companionship. DeVon was with Dad quite often, driving with him to White Swan, one hundred miles round trip. As time went on, while working and traveling with Dad, DeVon observed that Dad plainly was not at all well. The family was seeing it too.

Dad went to see doctors in Richland, but they were at a loss to diagnose his illness. Still his mind was set to stay active and continued to work at what he could. He pushed himself in spite of not feeling well. His sense of humor was still very active and it often intermingled with this new problem.

Raphael's steadfast and faithful service in the church during that difficult period would further demonstrate his already admirable qualities of character by continuing to work, and not give up until he was absolutely too weak, and forced to. He is a beautiful example of what the Lord meant about enduring to the end.

Early summer - 1954. Dad had an appointment with a doctor in Yakima, and so they drove up there, about 80 miles distant from Richland. It's not remembered who drove them there unless it was Dad that did the driving. According to Barbara, she and husband Norm drove to Yakima that evening after Norm got off work, and it stands out in their memory that they saw Beverly was already there, so all three of them were there during the "visiting hours" only. In those days they had limited visiting hours and no accommodations for family sleep-overs in  hospitals. Visitors had to leave exactly when the one-hour time limit was up, or be told to leave.

It is in Barbara and Norm's memory that Dad was ordered by the doctor to stay over night for tests, which would mean that Mother had to sit up all night. The rest of us were all required to leave, and Norman and Barbara remember getting back to Richland late that night, but kept an "ear to the ground" about Dad's negative situation as it developed. This is what happened:

After Dad's examination by the Yakima "doctor", he said that what was wrong with Dad was "all in his head." The family strongly disagreed. So the next thing the doctor did was call in a psychiatrist to "prove it". That was ridiculous! Dad was perfectly stable minded up to the day he died. He knew the pain was real, he was the one suffering with it!

According to DeVon, they had assigned Dad to the psychiatric ward! Mother evidently called DeVon in Richland and told him what they'd done to Dad. Well, when DeVon learned about that, he immediately went and got Bud and they drove to Yakima in all haste to get our Dad out of that awful place! They meant business, and as a team they entered the floor of the hospital where Dad was located. They were asked, "Who are you looking for?" They said that they'd come to get Raphael and take him home. They were told, "You can't do that." The boys said, "You just watch us!" And they walked in and gathered up Dad and took him back to his home in Richland.

The people at the Yakima hospital had wasted more of Dad's precious time towards receiving significant diagnostic help from somebody else because of their disgusting, unethical treatment of him. If they could not diagnose his condition, they should have said so and discharged him.

In looking back at those years, pancreatic cancer was hard to detect and define through just the medium of testing, compared to what is known today. But his suffering definitely was not "all in his head." More months of precious time elapsed, and still no diagnosis for Dad.

Naturally, Mother was with Dad wherever he went. She wanted to be with her husband to help keep his spirits up, and to know what was being done for him. It was a hard trial for her and the family, to see husband and father so ill and suffering for such an extended period of time, when nothing of worth had been done for him by the doctors so far. Mother was also the Richland Stake Relief Society President at this time.

Mid summer - 1954. Dad was still losing weight and energy. He was then referred to a noted Chiropractor in McMinnville, Oregon. It was a long way to McMinnville, close to 190 miles distant from Richland, but they felt they needed to keep trying to find Dad some relief. This doctor gave chiropractic treatments combined with some other type of thing which is thought to have been a form of ancient Chinese treatment. He was told he'd need two treatments. To go to Oregon to take the first treatment, Dad was accompanied by Mother, Bart, Shanna and Earlene. For the second treatment, DeVon drove Dad down, just the two of them went. There seemed to be some hope come out of these treatments, but it was short-lived, and both Mother and Dad felt low and discouraged. It was a very difficult time for them, they didn't know where to turn next.

October or November - 1954. Finally Dad was convinced, by Pearl's sister, Arvilla Ross, and by Dareen Clement his daughter-in-law, that he should go to Salt Lake City for exploratory surgery, it seemed to be the only avenue left, since no one had been able to diagnose the exact problem for over a year. They were both qualified nurses. So Dad made the decision to go to Salt Lake and see about it. The surgery would be performed at the Salt Lake County Hospital where Arvilla was currently nursing and where Dareen had done her nurses training.

According to DeVon: After the folks arrived in Salt Lake, it was several days before the surgery even took place because there had to be another preliminary examination and much needed discussion about all the parameters involved. 

DeVon said he talked with aunt Arvilla over long distance telephone, and she told him what she had discussed with the doctor. She said she, "Told the doctor that the pain most certainly WAS NOT all in his head as he'd been told by the previous doctor in Yakima, and Arvilla said, "No, this man is not the type of man to complain, and his mind is sound and clear!" The doctor said he didn't want to operate, and Arvilla finally said to him, "Well, you're going to! He cannot be allowed to go on suffering like this if something can be done for him." So preparations were made for the exploratory surgery and when the doctor opened him up and saw how bad it was, even he cried.

Both Dareen and Arvilla stood in, and assisted with the surgery. It was comforting to Dad to know they were going to be there and participate, and he always appreciated that so much! It was then that he was diagnosed as suffering with pancreatic cancer. By that time, the cancer had progressed so far that nothing else could be done except to sadly close him up.

Several days after surgery was completed, he developed an abscess in the affected area and had to go back into surgery again to have it removed. Later when Dad talked about the abscess, he said, "They had to open me up again, only without anesthesia that time." He said he suffered greatly. So it took another week for the removal of the abscess to heal up. 

After the surgery, Don, Shanna and Bart drove from Richland to Salt Lake City, 750 miles distant, to see Dad and to pick up Dareen and bring her back home to Richland to her children. Two sisters in Richland, Barbara and Beverly, were tended Dareen's three little girls so she could go and be with Dad in the operating room. 

During the recuperation period from Dad's surgery, Mother desired for him to receive a priesthood blessing from one of the General Authorities of the Church while in Salt Lake City, which was undoubtedly discussed between mom and dad. And so Bart accompanied Mother, and she humbly petitioned Spencer W. Kimball, who was one of the Twelve Apostles at that time, for this blessing. And Elder Kimball in his kind compassion, went over to the Salt Lake County Hospital and gave Raphael the requested priesthood blessing. 

Spencer W. Kimball later became the President of the Church during the 1970's. By way of explanation of them making a request to a general authority, it was certainly appropriate since both Mother and Dad, during the three previous years at least, had been in one or the other of an apostle's presence many times, by virtue of each of their stake callings as Stake Patriarch, and Stake Relief Society President. Occasionally, they were even entertained in Raphael and Pearl's home in Richland.

After a three week stay in Salt Lake, Dad and his sweetheart Pearl flew home, the closest airport being in Pendleton, Oregon, sixty miles distant from Richland. Airplanes back then weren't all that comfortable in general. Then by car to Richland. He had to have been extremely tired from traveling by the time he arrived home from the hospital in Salt Lake.

When settled back home in Richland, Dr. Robert Franco, a very good doctor, became Dad's attending physician until his death. He is quoted as saying that, "Raphael had the strongest heart of any patient he'd ever seen, that it was his strong heart keeping him alive." Raphael was given pain medication to help him through. The median survival of this particular cancer is little more than 3 to 6 months from the time of the diagnosis, but Dad survived a whole year. 

He was blessed by Heavenly Father to have a year to get his affairs in order when he knew he was going to die. One of those items completed, was that his sons built a brick home for Pearl in Kennewick, under his supervision. As sick as he was, he drove to Kennewick every day in his Nash and used the recliner seat as a bed, that he might be able to rest during the project. Then at a certain point in construction, he was tired and felt it was far enough along, and let the sons finish it on their own. It was at this time that Dad took took Dareen's offer to care for him at her house. The day he arrived there was on a tuesday. He was very weak and tired. That night he slipped into a coma and passed away on Thanksgiving Day - on November 24th - which happens to be the birthday of Raphael's grandfather, Darius Salem Clement.

This ends the life of a great man who had been stalwart to his last ounce of energy, and by so doing left a wonderful legacy of fine example to his family, a father that we are all proud of. Raphael Clement passed away on the 24 November 1955 at the age of 56 years. 

The exact date of Raphael's release from his 2nd Stake missionary calling is not known, but it may have been around the time he left Richland for his surgery in Salt Lake. 

As to the calling of a Patriarch, he is never released from that position. Once ordained a patriarch - always a patriarch. The following description of a patriarch's calling may be of interest as follows:

THE CALLING OF A PATRIARCH. Patriarchs, evangelical ministers, or evangelists, as they are sometimes called, have a special calling in the Church. It is that of declaring the lineage of  the Church members and of pronouncing blessings upon them. "It is the duty of the Twelve, in all large branches of the Church, to ordain evangelical ministers (Patriarchs), and they shall be designated unto them by revelation...."  (D&C, 107:39-40). (Apostle, John A. Widtsoe).

"It is the duty of patriarchs in the Church to bestow blessings upon the heads of those who seek blessings at their hands. They are fathers. They hold the evangelical office in the Church. It is their business and right to bestow blessings upon the people, to make promises unto them in the name of the Lord, as it may be given them by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to comfort them in the hours of sorrow and trouble, to strengthen their faith by the promises that shall be made to them through the Spirit of God, and to be fathers indeed of the people, leading them into all truth." (Journal of Discourses P. 226).

"Even when a patriarch is not an active patriarch in the stake in which he lives, he is still authorized to give patriarchal blessings to his own lineal descendants. If his descendants go outside their stake (such as to their patriarch grandfather), their recommend for a patriarchal blessing must be signed by their own stake president as well as by their bishop. Otherwise it is signed only by their bishop." (Glen J. Behling, Stake Patriarch, and son in-law).

It should be mentioned that while Raphael served as Stake Patriarch, he gave patriarchal blessings to two or more of his family members as well.

After Raphael's four-plus years of service as Stake Patriarch (1950-1955), brother Leavitt Karren was ordained as the next (second) patriarch of the Richland Stake. 

It is on record that Raphael blessed his baby granddaughter Mitzi Clement in 1952, daughter of Don and Dareen, giving her a name and a blessing. Also on record, just four months before Raphael passed away, he blessed his baby grandson Mark Clement, the first of July 1955, son of DeVon and Earlene. Mark is undoubtedly the last grandchild he blessed. How special and significant it was to him to be able to take his infant grandchildren in his arms, and give them a name by which they shall be known upon the records of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. A father's blessing typically follows the pronouncing of the name.

He may have baptized one or two of his own children when they turned eight years old, the age of accountability in the Latter day Saint Church.

Raphael Clement was a strong spiritual leader, and an excellent speaker. His contribution to the growth of the church was significant in many ways in the Yakima District, and later in the Richland Stake. Raphael's ten-plus years of influential service brought much inspiration and encouragement along the way to the people, and to his family. It came by way of unselfishly giving of his time, his talents and his means to the up-building of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.

Thus by his own example and personal testimony, he effectively taught the gospel to many people and baptized them into the church. For example, the following experience was told to Barbara by a ward member, Seona King, (of Richland) on two different occasions:

Seona's husband, Don, was taught the gospel and baptized by Raphael. She said, "Your father has a gift of teaching the gospel. When he taught my husband, he made it clear and easy to understand, taking him through scriptural truths step by step, proving to him that this is the restored gospel as anciently organized by Jesus Christ. The spirit of the Holy Ghost witnessed the truth of it to my husband through your father's powerful teaching and testimony. We so love and appreciate him!" 

Former District Mission President, Raphael Clement, is undoubtedly pleased that a Temple has been built within the boundaries of his former Yakima District Mission. President Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated the Columbia River Washington Temple, located in Richland, Washington, in four dedicatory sessions on 18 November 2001. The Columbia River Temple serves more than 34,000 Latter-day Saints in southeast Washington and northeast Oregon. 

In this book we can learn a great deal about Raphael's dedication to the Church and to his family. And because of his devotion, he will be remembered from generation to generation. We believe that the stories of his dedication will help shape the lives of his posterity and keep the memory of Raphael Clement alive, and that his grandchildren WILL KNOW HIM.