What is The Tragic Link Between Jeffrey Holland’s Illness and Death?

Does Jeffrey Holland’s Illness Cause His Wife’s Death?

Novelist and religious leader Patricia Terry Holland passed away on July 20, 2023, after a short time in the hospital. She was 81 years old and was the wife of Jeffrey Holland, a leader in the Latter-day Saint church. Patricia, also known as Pat, grew up in a small town called Enterprise in southern Utah. She had five brothers and spent her days doing farm work like milking cows, driving trucks, and gathering potatoes.

When she was 16, her family moved to St. George, where she finished high school and met her future husband. While dating Jeffrey Holland, she attended LDS Business College and Dixie College. After he returned from a mission in Britain, they got engaged and she moved to New York City to study music at The Juilliard School.

They got married in 1963 and moved to Provo, Utah, where Jeffrey was finishing his studies. Pat was known as Sister Holland by most church members, but Jeffrey called her Pat. They had three children named Matthew, Mary Alice, and David. Their son Matthew later became a leader in the church.

In 1980, Jeffrey became the president of Brigham Young University in Provo, and Pat was like a caring mother to the students there.

In a speech given in September 1988, she welcomed students to campus:

“I want you to know that I know something of the anxieties with which you start school this year,” “My deepest, my most earnest wish for you, is that you will approach this year with peace and self-assurance — that you will be more caring for yourself and as kind to yourself as you would be to a friend in need. You are in need, and you ought to be your own best friend.”

Pat Holland volunteered and shared her skills with the church’s Young Women General Presidency as a counselor between 1984 and 1986. In her life, she was also the Relief Society president four times. In 2000, her book “A Quiet Heart” won the Association for Mormon Letters’ Book of the Year award.

Ten years later, in 2020, LDS Business College gave her the Distinguished Alumnus Award. This year, the Hollands became sick. Both Pat and Jeffrey got better after having COVID-19. Jeffrey had kidney problems, so he took a break from being an apostle to do kidney dialysis. He couldn’t join the April General Conference because he was sick, but by June, he started to come back to work little by little.

The Facebook post below offers more proof of Jeffrey’s need for renal dialysis.

“Pat and I have been touched by the cards, notes, thoughts, and especially by the prayers you have offered on our behalf,” he wrote on Twitter. “Your sweet gestures during this demanding time have reminded us that God watches over us, that we can always trust in him, and that he very often answers our prayers through other people.”

The following is the whole contents of a tweet posted by Jeffrey R. Holland:

After having been away from Church assignments for several weeks due to some serious health challenges, I am pleased to begin slowly returning to work. Pat and I have been touched by the cards, notes, thoughts, and especially by the prayers you have offered in our behalf. Your… pic.twitter.com/aFwyklmLC8

— Jeffrey R. Holland (@HollandJeffreyR) June 6, 2023

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