In commemoration of events that took place June 27th, 1844, may I offer the following?

One day many years ago, some little girls were playing in front of Emma Belle’s house. They were talking about their grandfathers. Emma Belle had never heard of a grandpa [grandfather]. So she asked where hers was.

One of the older girls said, “Your grandpa was a bad man, and somebody killed him.” Then the girl turned to her friends; started laughing.

Emma Belle turned and ran into the house upset. Her father Alexander opened the door for her and she rushed in.

“Where’s my grandpa?” she said. “Why can’t a have a grandpa like the other girls? Was he a bad man? And did men kill him?”

Emma Belle was clearly upset. But her daddy picked her up and walked over and sat down.

“Your grandpa,” he explained, “was my father. He was not a bad man. They killed your grandpa and my father.”

As Alexander spoke, his tears fell on Emma Belle’s face. And for the rest of her life she always felt that the tears shed by her daddy were not for his loss of so long ago, but for hers.

That little girl was Emma Belle Smith, and the grandfather she never knew was Joseph Smith Junior.