Lynn Jones: “When a Boy Comes Home”

By Lynn Jones

I grew up in Plainview, Louisiana, a small country community about 100 miles south of Shreveport. We lived on a dirt road that had no name, but we knew the names of everyone who lived on that dirt road. Cleo Alford and his family were the fifth family on the road. Cleo and Ruby Alford had eight children. The oldest child they had was grown by the time I came along, and his name was Gene Edward Alford.

After graduating from high school, Gene Edward enlisted in the Marine Corp and soon was sent a long way from Plainview to fight in the Korean War. That brought a lot of worry to the Alford family and to the whole community, since we were all sort of an extended family. We prayed for Gene Edward, and eventually our prayers, and the prayers of many others, were answered. The war in Korea came to an end. A truce was negotiated, the country was divided into two countries, North Korea and South Korea, and a demilitarized zone was established between them.  

Before long, Gene Edward was sent back to the States. Since no one had a telephone on our dirt road, the exact time of his arrival home took everyone by surprise. All of us boys rode our bikes down to see him, and his family said that their dad was at work and did not know that Gene Edward was home.

I’m not sure that we had been invited to witness the reunion between Cleo and Gene Edward, but when anything this big was about to happen in Plainview, we wanted to see it. Finally, we saw Cleo’s car coming. He stopped, got out of his car, and Gene Edward came walking out to meet him. I’ll never forget that meeting. Cleo was a short man, but he ran to Gene Edward, put his arms around him, and lifted him off the ground. And Gene Edward hugged him just as hard in return. Cleo and Gene Edward cried, and all the family cried, and I think maybe some of us who had ridden our bicycles down there might have cried a little ourselves.

Gene Edward never went back to Korea. He got married, raised a family, and lived his entire life in the area near his family and friends who welcomed him home. Gene Edward died last week at the age of 93. His parents had preceded him in death. I’m not sure what kind of meeting they had in heaven when Gene Edward arrived, but Cleo and Ruby probably came out to meet him, and Cleo wrapped his arms around him and lifted him off his feet. That’s what happens when you love someone and haven’t seen him in a while. I know because I saw it happen one time in Plainview when a boy came home from the war.

Lynn Jones is a retired pastor who lives in Oxford. He does supply preaching for churches in his area and often serves as an interim pastor. Jones is also an author, has written two books and writes a weekly newspaper column. He may be contacted at: kljones45@yahoo.com.