Excellence in youth: Sisters have twin loves in life
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OREM, Utah — Heather and Hollie Hansen have two loves in life — basketball and children. And while fulfilling the former, including leading their high school team to two straight state titles, an ESPN.com national championship and playing last summer in China on the USA Junior National Select Team, they find time to fulfill the latter.
That's why when they found out about a new local state home where mothers being treated for methamphetamine addiction can stay with their children, they wanted to be involved. With the help of their family, the 18-year-old identical twins from the Riverside Ward, Provo Utah Edgemont Stake, tied quilts, collected blankets and toys, and decorated many of the rooms in the Cottonwood Family Treatment Center in Midvale, Utah.
"It just sounded like a good experience to go there and learn about these families. I just feel so bad for the kids and for the moms," Hollie said, following a basketball practice at Mountain View High School in Orem. Speaking of the center, which opened after a Jan. 14 open house, she added: "It's a good opportunity for them to have help. They don't have help. What are they supposed to do?"
"We thought it would be awesome," Heather added. "I love kids." The young woman described the drug-addicted infants — often called "crack babies" — who cry all the time and need constant rocking and cuddling. There is a nursery at the center, she said, where she hopes to volunteer soon to rock these babies. "They have classes for moms. They teach the moms and the babies how to bond."
Heather and Hollie hope the warm touches they added at the center help bring a sense of home to these mothers and children. They spent some 30 hours tying quilts and enlisted the help of family and friends, including their step-mother, Lori Hansen, and their father, Scott Hansen, and their brothers and sisters.
"The whole family was awesome," Hollie said, adding that local businesses and community members donated many items. "We all just came together. We wouldn't have had as good an experience without having everyone help."
Speaking of the open house, Heather said she was just excited to see the project completed and was surprised when she and her sister were asked to stand and be recognized for their efforts. "I felt kind of dumb," but she added, "It was cool."
Their father describes his daughters as tender-hearted. "They have an interest in other people's well-being, particularly as it relates to young people who have lost their parents. They're intuitive and sensitive about others."
This comes in part, he added, from losing their mother, Laurie Hansen, to cancer in 1997, when they were 12 years old.
"It's impossible to describe how difficult it is when you're a part of a loving family with a devoted mother and a pretty good regular dad who just love their children and are devoted to them. It's still difficult," he said during a telephone interview in speaking of the loss of his first wife. "But we feel her influence through the veil, and we sense that she's never very far away." (He married Lori in 2000.)
He said their mother's death caused his daughters to grow up quickly and find balance in life through the support of family and friends. Heather and Hollie credit the faith of their dad, who has served as a single's ward bishop, and their mother, who never complained throughout her yearlong illness. "He never questioned anything," said Heather. "He let us cry with him. He let us talk about it. It has brought our family close. We are so close. It increased our testimonies."
Hollie added: "You can sit around and say, 'Why me?' Who wants to live like that? That's when my testimony got so strong. You don't have to know why all the time."
Today, the two young women are having fun being new big sisters to Karly and Sarah, who are Lori Hansen's daughters. And they speak of the warmth and love of their step-mother. "She's cool," said Hollie. "She's really nice. She fits in with the family really well. But the important thing is my dad loves her and she makes my dad happy. Anyone who makes my dad happy we love."
As for the future, Heather and Hollie are playing for a third straight state title. They will also follow in their brother Travis' steps by playing next year for BYU. And they are eyeing and dreaming about the 2008 Olympic Games.
E-mail: julied@desnews.com
