Diana M. Rapp

The Spark Ignites

1988 — at just three years of age, Diana takes her first dancing class. This sparks an interest in Dance that will quickly flame into a passion that burns ’til this day.

A baby Sister!

1989 — Just a few years after joining the great big world, Diana would welcome a new sister, who would become one of her best friends.

“Diana showed her sweet spirit at an early age. She was around two or three when Christina was Born. As she held her on her Lap for the first time, she looked up and said, ‘do you want to kiss her?’”

— Dennis Bedford

Early Life

1990 — Diana’s family moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, where she grew up.

Ahhh…it's Nahjee

Diana welcomed a new baby brother (his real name is Jason). She loved to pretend he was her own baby. Diana came up with the nickname Nahjee and often called out for Jason by saying, ‘NAAHHHH JEEEEEEE!’

Not a Mean Bone in Her Body

As Diana continued to grow, her kindness and sweet nature would become more and more evident.

“Diana had such a kind heart! She couldn’t be mean to anyone or anything. She loved animals, particularly our dogs, Baby Dear and Haru. But she really loved her cat, Cindy. Cindy was not the friendliest cat and drove the rest of us crazy sometimes… but Diana loved that cat! She even took her with her when she left home and was sad when she had to give her away.”

— RuthAnn Bedford

Diary of a not-at-all wimpy kid!

“Diana broke her foot playing softball in middle school and had to have surgery on it. She was absolutely devastated because she was unable to dance in the upcoming recital that she had been preparing for. It was her first time wearing pointe shoes in her ballet class and she was supposed to perform the dance doing a lot of technique up on her toes. But through hard work and dedication, in a short amount of time, she built back some strength in her foot, and was allowed to perform in the recital. She was able to be in the section of girls that had pointe shoes on in her ballet class. She still could not perform the dance in her pointe shoes, but she wore her flat ballet shoes and performed the dance number that way. She danced and performed so well that you could not even tell that she was wearing flat ballet shoes instead of pointe shoes.”

— Christina Dowuona-Hammond.

Bunker Dance Center

1997 — started dancing at the Bunker Dance Center. She continued her training and competed in dance competitions for the next 8 years.

“Diana's greatest love of Dance was ballet. And she was a beautiful ballerina! She loved all of her teachers, but was very fond of Dolly. Dolly had never had children of her own and the girls at the studio became her ‘children.’ When Diana graduated, Dolly gave her a ring that [Dolly's] ballet teacher had given her! It was such an honor for Diana. She still wears the ring to this day.”

— RuthAnn Bedford

The Student Becomes the Teacher

Diana would eventually excel through her long history with the Bunker Dance Center until she became a teacher.

“She loved children and began teaching young children Dance at the Bunker Dance Center, when she was in high school. She also taught Dance for a lady who owned a preschool. ”

— RuthAnn Bedford

Saturday's Warrior-Princess!

Diana was a freshman in high school when she got a part in her very first musical — Saturday's Warrior. She was part of the ensemble.

“ It was fun because the choreographer was also the owner of the [Bunker] dance studio that I was already a part of. So she just had all of our team be a part of this musical. Actually being a part of the cast in the musical, I learned this for the first time, is that being a part of the cast they try to make other actors break character and laugh. I never did it to anybody, cause I'm too nice. So when we're trying to be serious in a scene in heaven we were supposed to pretend that we were talking and he would say something that was really funny to try and make us laugh. I always broke character, because, you know me, I can't keep a straight face.”

— Diana Rapp

High School

2004 — graduated from Bonanza High School in Las Vegas, NV. Diana taught Dance with Kathy Bunker at the Bunker Dance Center for one year. Her friendship with Kathy is still alive today, a testament to the kind, sweet people both Diana and Kathy are. The Bunker Dance Studio alumni include Aaron Turner (So You Think You Can Dance, season 10). Diana was on the same Performing Arts Dance Team as Aaron for seven years. She even got to kiss him when she was performing as Snow White in “Snow White,” a ballet dance performance where she played Snow White and he was the Prince. Napoleon & Tabitha (Judges on So You Think You Can Dance) were Diana's Hip-Hop teachers. By the time they were teaching Diana, they had choreographed performances for Jennifer Lopez and various other stars, making it even more exciting and more of a privilege to work with them. “They were always so down-to-earth and fun. And always joking around with us and making rehearsals very fun. They were never mean or strict. They were always fun to work with. They were kind of like a big brother and sister to us.” Diana was also able to work with Stacey Tookey, and Christina, her sister, was able to work with Peter Chu.

College

2005 — attended a semester at Utah Valley State College in Orem, UT. Majored in Dance and was a member of the Dance Team. Being a member of the Dance Team, she got to wear green break-away pants while performing for the basketball team.

Seven Brides in Mormon Country

2006 — performed in “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” — her first musical for the St. George Musical Theater. This was the beginning of 2 years of regular performances for her. She also started teaching Dance at a local studio, beginning 15+ years of teaching.

Dixie Chick!

2007 — attended Dixie State College in St. George, UT, for two semesters.

Student of the Year (was there ever any question?)

She won the “Student of the Year” award in the Dance Department. Criteria for the award included leadership, attitude, timeliness, and demonstrated improvement.

Marriage

2008 — Married her first husband, Eric Wardell.

Gave birth to her first son.

2008 — A beautiful soul comes into the world. And his name shall be … Alec!

Broadway Debut

2010 — performed in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s international phenomenon and the second-longest-running show on Broadway, CATS, as performed at the Tuacahn Theater in St. George, UT.

Second Child

2013 — gave birth to her daughter, Katherine.

Divorce

2017 — After her divorce, Diana found the strength and courage to create a new life for her and her two children while still showing compassion and caring as a co-parent.

Pathways

2018 — attended Pathways at BYU-Idaho. Began one of her favorite jobs working at the Jordan River Temple cafeteria while simultaneously teaching at a local Ballet studio.

LDS Business College

2019 — attended LDS Business College for 3 semesters. This is when she first got interested in medicine while studying to become a Medical Assistant.

New Love

2019 — meets the love of her life. It would be the very first and very last time she attended the singles ward.

Engagement

2019 — only one month later, he couldn’t wait any longer, so underneath a star-filled summer night, on the backyard trampoline, he proposes to the love of his life!

Marriage

2019 — just two days short of two months after meeting, Diana and Trevor get married in the Bishop Anderson’s office with only her, Trevor, the bishop, and Alec and Katherine attending. And still to this day Alec and Katherine still don't believe it was a real wedding. “ Because who gets married in a bishop's office?”

A (New) Family: a Proclamation!

2019 — As part of marrying Trevor, Diana would lovingly and gracefully take on the responsibility and title of “bonus-mom” to three beautiful girls who would quickly come to love her kind, fun, and ever-patient influence on them.

Westward HO! —ish

2019 — moved to West Jordan, UT.

Oh, Lugnuts!

2019 — Trevor’s car breaks down, so for three months, over three separate repairs, they have to take turns taking the car to work or school while the other takes the train.

Tragedy

2020 — Hold’s her sister’s hand as she struggles with the loss of her second child.

A Room with a View

2020 — gives up her lovely 3^rd story apartment (with a glorious view of the Wasatch mountains) for a basement apartment with cheaper rent and larger space.

Pandemic

2020 — the global COVID-19 pandemic forces all schooling to move to a virtual environment. This cuts Diana off from her professors while simultaneously forcing her to become a home school teacher for Alec and Katherine. Eventually, two of her step-daughters would contract it, then her own daughter, then herself and Trevor, and finally her Mother-in-law, creating a whole month of quarantining.

You’re Prego?!?!

2020 — 5 months into her marriage finds out that, amidst adjusting to a new family, she will be bringing child number 6 into her your’s-mine-and-ours family.

SLCC

2020 — began school at Salt Lake Community College to prepare for Nursing School.

Earthquake !!!

2020 — Diana and Trevor would be thrust awake on the third story as their entire apartment sways uncontrollably for several minutes. The worst shockwave measured 6.5 on the richter scale, just 14 miles from their house. Deseret News would report,

“An early-morning, 5.7 magnitude earthquake centered near Magna on March 18 was the most powerful temblor in the state for decades and one felt by millions in the region. Hitting a populace already on edge thanks to the burgeoning COVID-19 pandemic, the event was followed by dozens of aftershocks. The town of Magna experienced the worst of the impacts and hundreds of residents were temporarily displaced, but perhaps miraculously, no fatalities or serious injuries resulted.” — Deseret News

Riots

In the wake of the George Floyd killings, riots would erupt across the entire United States. For the first time in memory, rioters would hit Salt Lake City, where police cars would be overturned and set on fire, looters would be threatened by a mad man with a bow and arrow, and in Provo, an elderly man would be shot repeatedly by rioters as he tried to maneuver past a roadblock.

Presidential Elections

Presidential Elections would be historic in seeing “the first woman, the first Black American, and the first South Asian American to be elected Vice President,” (Kamala Harris: The Vice President. A career for the people — breaking barriers and fighting for working families. The White House) but would also lead to a near coup d’é·tat as rioters ransacked the nation's capital.

Child Number 6!

2020 — Diana gives birth to a beautiful baby girl. To Trevor's dismay and to everyone else's delight, she ixnays's naming her Khmer and instead decides on Brooklyn Kennedy Rapp!

Sealed with a kiss!

2020 — COVID restrictions lifted, finally letting these two sweet lovebirds have the chance to be sealed in the Jordan River Temple. Restrictions only allowed one family in the temple at a time, leaving the temple a virtual ghost town and letting them have a wonderful, private experience in the celestial room.

Finally, a Real Honeymoon

2021 — almost two years after getting married, Diana finally goes on a honeymoon to Colorado. It would be an fantastic time of friendship, bonding, adventure, scary heights, fabulous food, a handful of miracles, and one disastrous mistake that turned out to be the best thing that could have happened.

Deployment X 4

2021 — Diana persists through mothering, step-mothering, and schooling alone while Trevor deploys with the Army four times. Once for three weeks to Ft. Sam Houston for ALC training. Twice for COVID-19, which, although the deployment was local, still put him working two full-time jobs. And finally was the almost-to-Afghanistan deployment where we went through all the physical, mental, and emotional preparation, until two days before "boots-on-the-ground" when President Biden pulled out.

More Tragedy

2021 — remains strong during the loss of her father-in-law, with whom she had a very close relationship.

A Mighty Hero and an Honest Worker

2021 — Finishes the last prerequisite for nursing school. To some, this may seem like a mundane accomplishment. Still, a multitude of additional, sometimes even extraordinary circumstances demonstrate why this is more than just a few mere classes. Helen Keller once said:

“The world is not moved only by the mighty shoves of heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.”

— Helen Keller

To understand the immensity of the aggregate of her accomplishment, we must understand the extraordinary circumstances of its collective parts. To begin with, her course work included such challenging classes as:

• Medical Terminology
• Intermediate Algebra
• College Biology I & Lab
• Human Anatomy & Anatomy Lab
• Human Physiology & Lab
• Human Physiology & Lab
• CNA Licensing
• ATI TEAS
• MicroBiology
• Pathophysiology

But the aggregate includes more.

Not only did she complete those classes, but she also was almost a decade older than her peers.

And still, the aggregate includes more. Not only was she older than her peers, but as a Mother of 6 children, she also had significantly more responsibility.

But if that wasn't enough, the aggregate includes even more.

See, she wasn't just a Mother in title. She was the type of Mother that would wake up every morning to help get Alec and Katherine up, get dressed, get breakfast, and then drive or walk Katherine to school. She was the kind of Mother that would walk the five blocks to pick up her kids from school just so she could listen to how their day was on the walk home. She was the kind of Mother that instigated in the midst of chaos new one-on-one movie nights with her children to make sure they knew she was still there for them.

Even still, the aggregate included much, much more.

During this time, she did one of the most extraordinary things a person could do. She conceived a life. Spent 9 months letting that life grow a little body inside her own. Gave birth so that life could become a person. And then held that person every night while at the computer trying to do homework one-handed.

But the aggregate included even more examples of faith and sacrifice.

You see, she also spent numerous weekends traveling to Idaho to see her step-daughters. This meant 8 hours in the car, which she couldn't use to study. Which many people would have used as an excuse to study on Sunday. Not her. During all of this, she NEVER, NEVER, NEVER once studied on a Sunday. She simply said, “I've never done it before, and I just don't feel right about it.”

Was this all of the singular, extraordinary circumstances that formed such an amazing aggregate?

Not even close.

See, during almost the entire time, the school had closed down in-classroom learning, meaning her preferred way of learning was unavailable to her. This also made finding and making tutoring appointments exponentially harder since she now had to sacrifice an hour getting to and from campus. And then — on top of that — the quarantine forced her children into homeschooling for a year, making her a teacher as well. And — on top of that — she would have to watch Trevor leave twice on military duty. And — on top of that — her child would get COVID, then her Mother-in-law would get COVID, and then she and Trevor would get COVID, making a month she would be caring for her family. All of this while never once neglecting her family. And never once thinking of herself. Every day she took another step forward while a thousand things tried to push her back.

Tiny pushes forward.

Consistently.

Constantly

Never stopping.

Honestly working.

Diana, you truly are...

a humble hero.

And the Show Must Go On!

Sweetheart. You really are my hero. You are everything I wish I was and everything I hope our children become. There is no other person I would rather make this journey with. You are truly the kindest, most amazing person I have ever known. I love you Sweetheart, and I can't wait to spend eternity with you!

For more information see Diana's bio.