A legacy that echoes

As you leave the downtown square of my small hometown of Perry, Oklahoma, and head east on Cedar Street, you turn right onto the first street past Leo Park and meander up the winding road to reach Grace Hill Cemetery. When our kids were learning to drive, that’s where we practiced. Driving slowly along the narrow road around the gravesites, with our vanilla Dr. Pepper drinks from Sonic Drive-In and country music playing on the radio, I would see the headstones of so many who had impacted my life: coaches, teachers, individuals whose lawns I had mowed, people I had worked for, and friends’ family members.