Dad's remains are now interred in the Hunt Cemetery in Paducah, Kentucky. I have one last charge to accomplish; that of obtaining a headstone to match the existing stones of his sisters, a brother and their parents. Dad was the baby in the family and had left home too young. The loss of his maternal grandfather when he was about 5; his father, a scant ten years later, and then the marriage of his oldest brother, with whom he had always been very close, was devastating, to him. His mother may have been worn out from bearing five children on a farm that they had cleared with their bare hands and a lot of muscle. Dad said that she told him that he had always been a good boy and she knew that he would be O.K. I could not have allowed my 15-year-old son to leave home like that but I guess it was a different era.

Dad signed his portion of the family farm over to Donna and me, years ago. He knew we would honor his wishes that it be kept in the family and since the taxes have not been much, it has not been a burden. Dad truly loved people but fearing loss is not a good way to forge enduring relationships and probably accounted for his failure at marriages. He was a friend to many and a stranger to all. He was often painfully lonely. It has been difficult to read his diary entries, noting this.