I remember a story about my dad that I haven't told you.  When WWII was over, he opened an appliance store.  One day when he was delivering a washing machine on the Spavinaw road, this side of the dam,  he saw a man across the way, standing on his front porch who wouldn't stop staring at him.  He unloaded the washer, and was leaving when the man approached him and said, "I know you.  You're one of the Swan boys, from Wilberton.  You're Elmer."  My dad was very surprised.  He didn't recognize the man.  Dad had grown up in Wilberton, but had moved to Pryor many, many years previously.   "Who are you?" he asked.

The man continued.  "You wouldn't remember me.  You were just a little kid at the time.  But I know something about your family.  I know who murdered your dad.  Some people tried to say that your father killed himself, but that isn't true.  I know who killed him."

My father was seven when his dad was murdered.  William Swan was very wealthy, and it was the wild west.   Murder was not uncommon.  But the question was always there.  Who did it?  My father was shocked.  Shaken.  "Who are you?" he asked again.  "What do you know about my dad?"

"If you will come back tomorrow, I'll tell you all about it," the man said.  "I don't want to talk about it right now.  Seeing you has been an upset for me.  It was a long time ago and I'd almost forgotten."

Dad returned to Spavinaw road the next morning, eager to hear the man's story and find out what he knew.  But when he pulled into the man's driveway, the house was standing empty.  Everything was gone.  No car, no furniture, and no man.  My dad asked around but no one knew what happened to him.  The man had vanished.  Was he the murderer?  Or was he afraid that if he told who did it that he would be in danger.  It was a question that haunted dad for the rest of his life.  He always wondered what would have happened if he had insisted that the man talk to him that day.  Or insisted on learning his name.  William was murdered in 1917.  Everyone who would know about it is gone.  It will always be a mystery.  Only God knows.  At some point, the murderer faced God and was judged.