Today at 3:58 a.m.

by Philip Martin

"Death ends a life, but it does not end a relationship, which struggles on in the survivor's mind toward some resolution, which it may never find."

--Gene Hackman as Gene Garrison in "I Never Sang for My Father"

Ezra was 40 years old when he got in his truck and drove away from his wife and two sons. A witness said he waved goodbye out the window but never looked back.

His older son said it was the not looking back he always remembered.

No doubt Ezra had his reasons. He'd gotten Lida pregnant and married her after the baby came. He stayed married to her for nearly 15 years, even though that first son didn't make it a year. She drank. He worked. They moved around. She had family to help her; their oldest boy was 13.

Sometimes men leave. Ezra left. When the boy who watched Ezra leave was 16 and a sophomore in high school, he lied about his age and joined the U.S. Marine Corps. World War II was over. The kid was tired of being a kid. They sent him to Qingdao, China, as part of the occupation force, trained him as a radio operator. He played records for the guys in his unit. He became a disc jockey for Armed Forces Radio in the Pacific. When the kid was 19, Communist revolutionaries took over the mainland, and he was redeployed, first to Japan and then Hawaii.

The kid had a problem with authority; he was demoted for insubordination. When he was 20, he was in a motorcycle accident that resulted in his being discharged as a disabled veteran. This saved him from the Korean War, but didn't stop his sergeant from telling him he'd never amount to anything.

The kid went back home to Illinois. He........

© El Dorado News Times