Why I wrote "Perley" (Continued)

I pestered my family for the next several months and collected hundreds of old family photos. I became fascinated with these family members that I had never known but of course it was my grandfather, Perley, who was the most colorful character in the family and the one I wanted to learn more about.

In the process of collecting information about Perley I became obsessed with finding any little tidbit I could. I remembered that Quentin, an indispensable friend of Perley's for the last few years of his life, had ended up with the majority of Perley's papers, poetry, letters, pictures and diaries after he died. Basically everything that had been piled high on Perley's kitchen table! I had no idea where Quentin was living now, or what the likelihood would be that he would still have any of Perley's things after almost 30 years. After several months of searching I finally located Quentin living in Utah, he still had all of Perley's 'stuff' stored in his garage and after assuring him I would take good care of it, he was willing to return it all to my family. It was like Christmas when UPS showed up with 8 big boxes filled with the remnants of Perley's life. (to be continued)