On Saturday we had David's ashes interred in the columbarium at our church. He died in 2019 but donated his body to the UCF School of Medicine, so it took a while for his cremains to be delivered to me and for his family to come together to place the ashes in the wall.
Despite plans needing to be changed almost hourly due to COVID and freezing rain, we got the job done. There was just a hand full of us, mostly due of my inability to deal with crowds, but his close friends and family were there for the send off.
In the photo you can see David's children in the flection from the niche.
Before they arrived from other parts of the country I gathered things that they might want to take home with them. While I was compiling all of this I ran across an article which appeared in the Independence, Kansas newspaper in 1939. Most of us who know David know he had an unusually challenging childhood, But he never admitted being traumatized. He often said that he loved his life and would be happy to come back and live it all over again.
David Runyan, 7, Makes Trip of 12,000 Miles for Stay at Relatives Here.
He wasn't a bit tired after a 12,000 mile journey via freighter, streamliner and automobile from his home in Ipoh, Federated Malay States. (This is now Malaysia.)
David had told his family over the years that he essentially traveled across the Pacific unaccompanied but the article tells us he was accompanied by Rev. Dodsworth, Methodist district superintendent in the district where David's father was a Methodist missionary.
From California David made the train trip alone to Kansas. But then he was used to traveling alone. He had just spent a year in kindergarten in India, having sailed from his home without his parents.
He (David) was one of twelve Malayan children to go to Hebron, a school in the hills in South India, for a year.
I love the last lines of this article.
David speaks with a distinct English accent...While he has been residing in Malay, he has learned to speak several languages. On Monday David will be enrolled at the Lincoln school. He will be given tests to determine the grade he is to enter.
If we live long enough, we will go through many, many chapters of our lives. As you know, I think every one of us has a story. I'm grateful beyond measure that I got to share David's last chapter.
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