Another promotion to glory

Payton brothers: Ernest (d. 2017), Frank (d. 2023), and now George (R.I.P.).

He was the first Salvationist who spoke to me when I visited the Ithaca Corps almost twenty years ago. What a greeting! – warm, inquisitive, utterly genuine. It was the best or second-best first impression ever made on me. (The other was Frank’s, two or three minutes later. You need to meet my brother, George said.)

I spent many good hours with George and his family, but the first moment may have been the most important one. What a gift, to be able to greet strangers in church.

My condolences to Gracie, his wife.

Update (March 14): Here’s a brief obituary.

Another “promotion to glory”

R.I.P., another dear Salvationist friend: Yvonne, Grace’s sister, Frank’s widow.

Her daughter made this collage:

I almost saw her in January – she was thinking of stopping over on a return trip from Chicago – but she was suddenly hospitalized. She ended up flying back home, to Ithaca.

No one I knew in that town was more hospitable than she. I spent many happy hours with her & Frank. She told me about where she’d lived … Argentina, Mexico, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the Bronx … in spontaneous tidbits. She wasn’t the sort to curate her anecdotes.

The thing about soccer is, those guys run and run. … I was in Mexico during the 1986 World Cup. I watched all of it because I was laid up in bed.

Were you glad Argentina won?

No! That made me mad! They were such cheaters! The Germans were better.

She was still ticked off about it in 2022.

On politics:

Trump is what I call a New York bully.

So you voted against him?

No! I’d never vote for Hillary.

I never minded, she was so candid; her opinions, strong though they were, were informed by her own experience.

Of their respective families, she & Frank were the quiet ones. That’s probably why they liked me so well.

She collected nativity sets, played on her phone, and watched the Hallmark Channel and (with me) murder mysteries. She fed me a lot of raclette. She was good company.

She & Frank and their siblings and kids and grandkids were lovely together.