A familiar, shared sorrow - Los Angeles Times

My condolences on the death of Paul Whitefield’s father (“An Ending Where It All Began,” April 8).

I read his article with an overwhelming sense of deja vu. Only last June I returned to my hometown to bury my 83-year-old father, Joe C. Hanna, a former Naval Air Force pilot and four-term

Texas state representative.

I returned to the county that he doubtlessly bought his beer in. I’m from Breckenridge (30 miles away and known by many in the area as BeerCanRidge), a town that shares much in common with

Ranger, down to the mesquite trees, dead armadillos and the presentation of the flag to my fiercely anti-Bush mother.

Thank you so much for Whitefield’s thoughtful piece. (Makes a not-really homesick Texan want to run out and buy liquor on a Sunday.)