Alison Craig

ALISON CRAIG is a single mother working on a master's degree in English at Brigham Young University, where she teaches a variety of writing courses. This essay won first place in the personal essay division of BYU's 1991 Vera Hinckley Mayhem Contest.

Wonder and Wondering: Five Meditations

Articles/Essays – Volume 25, No. 3

I thought again today of how I used to sit at forums and devotionals so that I could watch the signer for the deaf club. I knew the manual alphabet and recognized a sign or two, but mostly I watched without understanding, the signer’s hands, eloquent and expressive, echoing the words of the speaker. I’d see “thank you,” a hand to the lips and then out; I’d identify the rapid-fire finger spelling of a name—much too fast for me to read. And at the end of the prayers, that beautiful sign “the Lord, Jesus Christ,” the letter “L” moving diagonally from the left shoulder to the right hip, and then a finger in the palm of each hand. I was always crying long before the prayer.