by Tom Parsons

Created on: August 19, 2009   Last Updated: August 24, 2009

If anyone had asked me after my brother's death, where he was, I would have said, In Heaven. That is what I was told. That is what I believed.

The popular idea was then, as it is now, that when a person dies, that person most likely will go to Heaven. Only the very worst people go to the other place. That is what I was told. That is what I believed.

There was a book being kept somewhere, I was told, and in that book there were two columns. All the bad things a person did were listed in one column. All the good things were listed in the other column. And if there were more in the good column than in the bad column, then that person could go to Heaven. That is what I was told. That is what I believed.

In ancient cultures, a similar idea persisted. The heart of the dearly departed one was weighed in special balances. If the heart weighed heavily on the good side rather than the bad side, the person could enter paradise. Otherwise, something less than pleasant awaited the unfortunate soul.

I believed my brother was in Heaven. That is what I was told. Certainly the good in his life far outweighed the bad.

My brother was a family man. His letters from the war confirm his love for his family. Had he lived, and married his fiancee, I believe his marriage would have been successful.

I also have no doubt that my brother would have been a good father to whatever children he and his fiancee might have had together had he lived and had they married. I remember the way he treated me. He spent time with me. The day a tornado came so close to our house, he ushered us into the basement and watched over us and protected us, acting to calm whatever fears we might have had, fears I am sure, looking back now from my perspective, he must have shared.

Ron faced a relentless enemy day after day during the war in order to protect the freedom of his family back home. He served faithfully, earning an honorable discharge from the Navy that had taken him as a boy and released him as a man.

My brother was a good man. He was honest. He was loyal. He was faithful. He was dependable. He was kind. He was gentle. He could be tough when he needed to be, but his basic nature was to be gentle.

If anyone had earned the right to be in Heaven, my brother did. He was not perfect. He smoked too much. He drank also. He did not drink to excess, especially after he got out of the Navy. His fiancee did not like drinking, and he respected her wishes. He had done some wild things before, and during

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