Michael George Aley

When we went back to BYU for Michael’s masters degree, I got a job working in a jewelry store at the Orem mall. We were ships passing; I fixed dinner for the family and rarely had time to eat it before I had to leave at 5:30. Michael would feed the children and fix a plate for me to eat when I got home.
Initially, not having had to babysit much in his career, as the favorite uncle, he would let the children fall asleep wherever they landed.
I would come home from work at 11 or sometimes 12 o’clock at night and find dinner dishes in the sink and kids not in their beds but a sleep wherever they collapsed.

We had a conversation about that and ever after he would do the dishes and follow a routine to get the kids ready for bed. But in between dinner and going to bed, he invented games and played with them. They built forts out of the living room furniture. They jumped off the stereo onto the cushions from the couch. They played monster games; Michael was the monster, of course, and the children hid. That game morphed into “Monster and the blanket.” Again, Michael was the monster and the kids all hid under this king size blanket and Michael would try to reach under the blanket and of course they would all scream and hold the blanket down. Then the monster game became sort of a game of tag at the park and was called monster in the park. Of course the monster was the guy who was “It” on the ground, making a horribly, scary noise, and everyone else was on the equipment. If the monster touched you then you were the next monster.
When we would get together as a family, even when the children were grown, we would go to the park and play this game. People would gather around to watch. It was hilarious to see adults all on the top of the playground, equipment, squealing, and trying to raise their knees simultaneously, while bumping each other in the bum, to avoid being tagged.

He was the ballast in our ship. He was always even not given to fits of rage or anger. Sometimes I would climb the stairs to our apartment, upset about a dysfunctional dryer or a washing machine in the laundromat. As I complained to him he would suddenly draw a line in front of me with his toe and jump across it to my side and tell me “I’m on your side.”

Sometimes when I was going on about the car, not running properly or some other challenge that I was having issues with, he would say very evenly; “Sarah, I refuse to discuss this with you until you are calm.”
He was fun, and always witty. Once I found several campus parking tickets. I held them up and I said “Michael what is this?” and he replied sweetly “Sarah, those are valuable, the longer you keep them the more they’re worth.“

One night when I was at work, it was during the summer, so the children were playing outside and Michael lost Amanda. She was just a toddler and he methodically rounded up all the available men in our quad, and organize them into a search party. Amanda was found in another quad, turning the pedals of an upside down big wheel.
I didn’t hear about it until one of the mothers in our quad, tattled on him.
“ Michael,“ I said, “ you lost Amanda?”
“ She was fine,” he said, “you should’ve seen how the guys rallied to find her.”
And that was that, end of discussion. But it never happened again.

To assess how prepared we were for an emergency, one night he gathered the family around and said, “In three minutes, there will be an earthquake. A fire will break out in the laundry room. It will spread rapidly to the kitchen and you will have just 5 minutes to pick up the things that you need to survive for the next three days. All of us will go out the girls bedroom window and get into the car. Then we will assess how prepared we are.

The children all looked from one to another, and said; “Is this for real, is this really happening?” Michael just started counting down.
I was surprised, there was no pushing or shoving. Everyone went about their own business, and Michael helped us out the girls’ bedroom window.
We put the things, we had each brought, into the car. We drove up to the church parking lot to assess what we had to survive for the next three days.
We discovered we had two sleeping bags for six people, no hunting implements; Michael had laid down his gun in the process of helping us out the window. Some of the children brought favorite items, Amanda had almost her whole wardrobe, and her dolls. I brought canned goods and no can opener; a loaf of homemade bread and no knife; a jar of peanut butter, but nothing to spread it with, and a bunch of bananas. Certainly not enough food to feed a family for three days.
Final analysis; we were not prepared for an emergency. But it was a real life lesson that motivated us to plan ahead.

So many fond memories of Mike,Sarah and the Aley family, as we all lived in Friday Harbor and in Las Vegas too. My love to all of the Aley family. You are all great friends and loved dearly. Our memories and associations together are eternal. Sending love your way 😘

When the Aleys moved to Grants Pass I learned that they used to live in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island in Washington State, it was very exciting to learn that
Bro. Aley was involved in the Marine Biology program that the University of Washington and BYU took turns offering in Friday Harbor in the summers. The program studied the sea life in my grandparents’s lagoon, so it was fun to know that Bro. Aley was involved in that program. It’s been wonderful learning more about the lives and adventures and experiences and high caliber of this special family, and I am so sorry for the difficult times recently and the sorrow of losing your beloved husband, father, family member, and friend. 🤍

It will always stick with me how Michael could have such wit and kindness at the same time. I am greatful to have had the time I had with him.

I'm sorry I never got to speak to you again Elder Aley. You were a good man, our conversations when we were serving in the Utah Salt Lake City Headquarters Mission helped lift me when I was at my lowest on my mission (you knew about my dad battling cancer). I learn things about the world from you, and me and the other elders enjoyed talking to you, and especially when we ate dinner with you and Sister Aley. We're all going to miss you, until we meet again on the other side of the veil.

I was only 7 in 1957 when we moved to Willits,Ca. and the Aley family were in the Branch. I never really got to know Mike until he married my sister Sarah in 1973. But over the years as our families lived near each other and worked together in Friday Harbor Freight, I’ve grown to appreciate the good man he was and the Christ like example he set for all of us. He was a really great brother in law. I treasure these last few years after my husband Scott died, when I’ve been able to go to Grants Pass during the Summer with my good friends the Lehman’s, to visit with Mike, Sarah and Annette and Amanda. We’ve had such fun times together.
Last year when I was there, Sarah needed to go to Costco, so Mike and I went with her. While Sarah shopped, I bought Mike and I Strawberry Sunday’s as we waited for Sarah. Mike liked his sweets.
Great memories I will always cherish.
We love you Mike and we will miss you.
Love, Natalie

Dearest Family of MAley…I will never forget the family ties, the laughs, the absolutely crazy times shared with Mike. His friendship will always be cherished, and he is forever in the hearts of my husband, Warren, my brother, Mike, and I. We are thinking of all of you with love.

Growing up I was never really aware that my Dad worked 12 to 16 hour days on the regular. He made life look easy, because of his positive attitude. When he came home tired from work he still had energy to time us racing our bikes. When I had a math test in the morning and was melting down at the kitchen table, because I didn’t understand my homework, he stayed up with me until I understood it. With no complaints. He was the best father I could have had, the best person I ever met and the best man I ever knew.

I remember when I first met Michael here in grants Pass, thinking that he had a great voice and should be a radio announcer and also I was wondering what he was doing here. I thought he should’ve been a general authority. He was such a nice man and very knowledgeable about the gospel. We will all miss him dearly.

2019 Thanksgiving

I have nothing but good memories of Uncle Mike.
He helped me move out of my dad’s house after I graduated high school. Loaded up all my stuff (and my friend’s stuff) in the back of his huge semi truck and drove us up to Newport from NB. My dad was with us back then. I remember going salmon fishing with him and my dad at Friday Harbor back in 1980 when we went to visit. He was finishing his PhD back then. I remember your whole family came to visit us and we did a massive landscaping project at our old house in NB. He also fixed our stairs so they didn’t squeak so bad. I just thought he was so cool because he knew how to do so many things and he let me help him all the time. The last time we saw him was at my mom’s funeral. We got to talk privately for a little bit and he had a lot of surprisingly cool and positive things to say about me and my school work. I didn’t even know he knew what I was doing at all and then he rails off a full on personal biography of my life and I was like, wow I had no idea he even kept track of me at all. It meant a lot to me. I still think about how your dad and mine both grew up in a logging camp (that doesn’t even exist anymore) and both wound up getting doctorate degrees.

Every time I saw him throughout the years, he was always happy to see me and we picked up right where we left off. He was the “cool” uncle growing up. He was a bad ass. Super cool but big and strong and intimidating to anyone who might dare to flick me (or any of us) any crap. I looked up to him. He always stayed calm and patient with me showing me how to do stuff. From carpentry to landscaping to driving a big rig. When I was little, I’d wear out most adults. But not Uncle Mike. He always had the patience to tolerate me and he was good at setting me up on a project and that would keep me busy for a while. I worked extra hard because I wanted to impress him with how good of work I could do.

He taught me (and my brother Ryan) to never sleep with our socks on, that if we did, it would make us have bad dreams. It totally worked.
I think now that was more about us complying with putting our pajamas on and getting ready for bed when we didn’t want to. He just had a way of helping me understand the “why” of things. He also was good at convincing me that doing the things (like cleaning up and putting on Jammies) and going to bed on time without arguing, was a good idea. But he made it a good idea. Not like forcing but convincing me. He had a way of explaining things to me that just made sense, so I complied. I know my mom was happy every time y’all came to stay with us because she knew us kids would be on our best behavior. And we’d also get a LOT of work done. I actually looked forward to the work because I knew he’d teach me something new.

Back in the 70s.I took Mike with me in my truck lumber truck. I was teaching him how to drive. We got stopped at the scale. by Rio Dell, because Mike didn't have a license, and I got chewed out a little bit by the c, h, p, we went to a restaurant later on I will never forget this.. We were sitting at a table in the middle of the restaurant at hansen's truck stop. When they served the food I was a little bit embarrassed about sayìng a prayer.So I said, prayer is the souĺs sincere desire, uttered or unexpressed. Then mike said something I will never forget , he says ,yes , but uttered is always best.
When I was Bishop, he served as Eĺders. Qurum .President for a while, we went to visit an inactive member in a bar in Ĺaytonvvilĺe
we decided we should go where needed .

He was dating Sarah at that time but hadn't proposed.
I encourage him. .I knew from my experience of teaching her in sunday school glass, and knowing her for many years that she would be a perfect wife for him. She's very spiritual and very worthy and very good looking too
I'm glad they moved to grant's pass where we can renew our old acquaintances. It's been good to have them here and spend a little bit of time with them here.