Every rural person and place has a story. Change is part of that story.
“Rural Utah at a Crossroads” is part of the Smithsonian traveling exhibit Crossroads: Change in Rural America, which explores the changing meaning of rural life and identity. Utah Humanities is touring Crossroads to eight rural communities across Utah in 2024. As part of the tour, Utah Humanities and Utah Public Radio are partnering with exhibition hosts to interview local residents about change in their communities.
This interview took place at the Wasatch County Library in Heber City, Utah.
Matthew Heimburger: I lived here when nobody cared and nobody even noticed us. They drove through to get someplace else.
They always thought we were beautiful in the Heber Valley, but they just didn't care. Utah as a whole was kind of seen that way, as a state you fly over. And we were so anxious to be seen and to be recognized and to be validated, and now that we finally are, I just miss those old days. I feel like we finally have been asked to the prom, and we're so eager to say yes, and to say yes to anything, that we're saying yes to everything! And we don't realize that we're that we're valuable and that we have something special, and that we have the right to dictate aspects of how we grow and how we preserve, and how we live. So it's an ongoing process, for sure.
There's something really remarkable about being able to walk outside and feel a part of the seasons, a part of the soundscape, and even part of the wildlife and the wilderness. So we came back here when we had other choices, my wife and I, to be closer to the wild things, and we feel like we are every day, which is remarkable. And our kids, of course, we sent them out into the wild every day and to bring back treasures for what they had found.
So I have three children and two adult, you know, crazy, hiking, exploring sons, but I have this very remarkable young daughter who's 15 now, but she has special needs. And when my wife and I came to realize the changes that would be required for her, then I stepped back from my job. My wife's a very talented architectural designer, and she does the health care and I take care of our daughter most of the time.
We didn't see this one coming. Her diagnosis is Rett Syndrome, R-E-T-T, and it's normal birth and development until about a year and a half, and then we didn't get a diagnosis until about two and a half. So we didn't know we were going to have that journey or have that experience, and it took us a while to figure out how we could still live the life that we wanted to live with a daughter that would eventually not be able to walk or talk or use her hands. Our two sons are mountain goats, and that's part of their joy is being in the mountains, and at first I thought that my daughter would never get to do some of those things. The truth is, all those things are still possible if you have a mind and a will to make them happen.
We did have to make changes. We don't have all— we have the curb cuts, I guess that's ubiquitous because of the ADA, but we don't always have the playgrounds or the community that knows how to embrace her. But what we do have is a community where everybody waves to our daughter. Everybody says "hi." Everybody waves to Lucy and supports her in fundraisers.
I have a great story for you, I got to tell you this one. So we were at the high school for one of my sons, [who] was still in high school at the time, and we have a homecoming parade here. The parade would go down the street. I took my daughter to watch the homecoming parade, and we were cheering on her brother and all the other athletes and the various clubs at the school. And when we finished, I loaded my daughter up in our car and went back home to Midway.
And about a half hour later, I look out the window and a policeman pulls up and I'm like, "Oh no." I'm searching my soul for what I could have done wrong, you know. And he knocks on the door, and he's got kind of a serious look. He goes, "Hey. Do you have a daughter with special needs?" I'm like, "Uh, yeah, I do. She's right in here." He goes, "Oh, okay, good, because I have her wheelchair because you left it on Main Street in Heber." And people drove by and said, "Oh, that's Lucy's wheelchair," and they called the policeman. They say, "Hey, go take Lucy's wheelchair up to the house." And he did, and he was so happy to do it.
And everybody— that's our community, you know, and that's how my daughter gets treated, which is pretty fantastic. So not all the amenities we wish we had access to, but more of the love and the concern than we probably could otherwise expect.
“Rural Utah at a Crossroads” is a collaboration between Utah Public Radio, Utah Humanities, and the community hosts of Crossroads: Change in Rural America, a Smithsonian Museum on Main Street exhibition made possible in the Beehive State by Utah Humanities.
Support for Museum on Main Street has been provided by the United States Congress.
