"Home of the Flying Eagles"
From China - July 1, 2005
Dear Jim:
I have had a heck of a time setting up my e-mail. Finally, I went to YAHOO. Please note my different e-mail address (frankdheatherly@yahoo.com) in China. Hope things are going well with you. I did not send photos yet as you suggested, but I felt the need to write.
Frank Heatherly
Strength and Suffering
As I read the different things from half way around the world that are put on this excellent website, I am able to put faces and memories with many of the people named. To say I am delighted to make any sort of connection to my distant and youthful memories at this stage in my life is a gross understatement. What I realize is that I am still alive. Several people I knew well and admired are not. Some of my classmates that go back as far as fifth grade are not well. J. C. Francisco was one of those fifth grade classmates about whom I have been reading. If one seems to be living inside a shriek where there are only many echos and no exit, my pitiful needs seem like nothing. Actually they really are nothing, compared to major tragedy and suffering.
I console myself by knowing that much, but not all grief and suffering have their own duration and will pass. Sometimes it is that fire that burns us pure and makes us stronger.
EDITOR'S NOTE - The dedication of our classmates to one another and to the group as a whole, never ceases to amaze me. Here is one of our classmates on the other side of the world, fulfilling duties and responsibilities most of us could not even approach, taking the time to express concern for those of us back in the states. Many of us will remember that Frank Heatherly learned the Beckley Spirit from the man that coined the phrase. Frank carries it well.
Jim