Sad News

Early in the morning on the 17th, my Grandfather, James Oliver Perkins, passed away in Oklahoma. I was flying out that evening, and my parents were getting on a transatlantic flight from Moscow when they got the news. After struggling on for years, he couldn't hold out any longer. He had outlasted even the most optimistic doctor's expectations, surviving on will, his sense of humor, outlook, and faith. While I'm sad to lose him, I'm happy he is no longer suffering on his fraction of a lung. He had a lovely funeral service with about 300 people in attendance, which testified to how many people had had touched and befriended in his life. I saw a lot of family whom I'd never seen before, or seen only when I was a few years old.

The service was in Blanchard, near the center of Oklahoma. Grandpa Perkins was interred in Ardmore, near the Texan border. After a brief Interment ceremony, we drove with mom all the way back up to Ponca City, not far from Kansas. Thus, I saw a lot of Oklahoma. During the winter, its a cold, bleak country, with creeping fog in the evenings.
Now we're in Ponca with my Grandmother on my Mother's side. Spent the day shopping for clothes, and had lunch at Enrique's, an inexplicably good mexican restaurant in the tiny airport which serves the town of Ponca, completely surrounded by fields.