Gainesville, TX

“Right over there at that rest stop, a boy killed himself. Oh, it was a long time ago. He had just come back from the War and after about two or three months he just went and shot himself. Well. At first, his mama and daddy didn’t want nothing to do with him.”

“Why?”

“Well, they was embarrassed. Then, after a while, they said alright, they’d have a funeral. And we went, and that preacher stood up there in front of that boy’s parents –they was Baptist- and said, your boy is going to HELL, the Lord hates suicide, and all. Well I wanted to get up but your grandfather kept holding my arm, saying sit still, sit still. I just was never so mad in all my life. Oh! To do that boy’s parents that a way.”