HARLINGEN — In the fall season, there is the crispness of things, the renewal of things, the closeness and the laughter as the breath of the sky descends upon the tired and disillusioned.
It can also be a time of sorrows and the reassembling of the shattered and the broken; the construction of a new whole; the quest for the quiet places of the soul for healing.
Such is the case for the family of Quentin Hale, who died suddenly last December from COVID-19 and pneumonia. He was 25, and he’d just obtained lucrative employment as a trade lawyer for a brokerage firm in Katy.
“I don’t believe in going to Hell, but I have been to the gates of Hell,” said Bryan Hale, reflecting on the past year since his son’s death.
The quiet genius that was Quentin graduated fourth from the 2014 class of Harlingen High School. In his young life he acquired an accomplished list of experiences: Eagle Scout at age 14; President of the high school band in which he played trombone; missionary work in Vietnam; summer internship in Washington D.C. with Rep. Samuel Graves of Missouri.
Bryan Hale, chief meteorologist for KGBT, and his wife Diana, instructional coach at Coakley Middle School, have walked a jagged highway through their journey from excruciating loss to survival to the renewal of hope.
At the 2022 First United Methodist Church Pumpkin Patch Sunday afternoon, they shifted through revolving remembrances of the things they knew before their tragedy.
They remembered the 8 year-old boy who insisted on a blue light saber while looking over a whole wall of red ones, and then walking out, prompting the manager to nervously rummage through a back room until he found the only blue saber in the whole store.
They remembered the young man who started out majoring in physics before graduating with honors with a degree in religious studies from the University of Texas at Austin. “From physics to metaphysics,” as he used to say.
And the Hales, whose daughter Camryn graduated salutatorian from Harlingen High School in 2021 just months before her brother’s death, remember well their last family gathering, when Quentin did exhaustive research on the details of preparing Peruvian turkey for Thanksgiving.
They remember the glistening highway of Quentin’s life that abruptly dropped over a cold and jagged cliff into a dark mist.
“I’d like to say that I never realized how much I would miss anyone until now,” Bryan Hale said, breathing heavily from much lifting and moving at the Pumpkin Patch in the front yard of First United Methodist Church at 321 E. Harrison Ave.
The Pumpkin Patch is FUMC’s fundraiser, and a large portion of the money raised at the event, which runs through Oct. 31, will be used for the new Quentin Hale Scholarship Fund.
“I miss my son so much that it just hurts every day. There’s no day without pain. And I just never thought…” he stopped a moment to recollect an earlier memory.
“My grandfather was everything to me, and then when he died when I was a kid it hurt, but this was 10 times worse,” he said. “For this young, at 25, I wonder what might have been in the future, but I’m glad so many people in this community remember him so fondly.”
Behind him, children laughed or shouted frustration as they played hacky sack; they poked their heads into picture cutouts that instantly transformed them into farmers and jack-o’-lanterns and scarecrows. Families posed on hay bales and held pumpkins for pictures. Pumpkins and squash and gourds filled the yard.
The Pumpkin Patch had attracted scores of people looking to purchase pumpkins for $8, $10 or $18. The money raised will be divided between Journey Preschool, Backpacks for Kids, and the Quentin Hale Scholarship. That fund was created in the early days of the despair and shock of Quentin’s death, when donations rolled in instead of flowers.
By the end of the school year, there was enough money in that fund for 16 scholarships worth $500 each for seniors at FUMC.
Quentin’s mother Diana finds strength and peace in the good that can be created from tragedy.
“To take something as horrible as Quentin’s death and to take that great loss and use it to do good, it makes us feel like his passing was not in vain,” she said. “It tells us God is fulfilling his promise and holding us up. That even in one of the worst things that could happen to us, we can use it to see love.”
Love had a clear presence everywhere Sunday afternoon amid the sounds of children playing tic-tac-toe or checkers on large wooden tables, their innocence and untampered thrill serving as a powerful antidote to the poison of raw despair.
The unrelenting supply of people purchasing pumpkins for the scholarship fund revealed a powerful presence of hope and goodwill in the community – and the Hales were there not to grieve but to greet customers.
“There’s four,” Diana Hale said with a smile to a man and woman who’d just purchased four impressive pumpkins for $18 a piece.
The two buyers loaded them into a wheelbarrow with smiles and joy in their manner.
“We bought six yesterday, and we said we’re going to get some for our neighbors,” said Barbara Lyon. “We’re doing it so that we can help with the scholarship fund. That’s really what it’s all about.”
That was the spirit of many who have stepped up to support the family.
“Anita Boswell…” Diana paused and then continued, “Quentin was in Mayor Boswell’s Boy Scout troop. She came and bought $100 worth of pumpkins for her grandkids.”
Former Harlingen Mayor Chris Boswell recalled very well his work with young Quentin while serving as an assistant Scoutmaster for Troop 206.
“I took Quentin on his first Boy Scout camp out, and we went to Bentsen State Park,” Boswell said. “It was kind of a little backpacking thing, and it was in October.”
According to Boswell, it was hot, muggy and rainy, and in the middle of the night the young Quentin came to Boswell’s tent and asked if he could call his mother. They walked together down the road until they found decent cell phone coverage and made the call.
“He called his mom and walked off by himself and talked to her. And he came back, and he was perfectly fine after that,” Boswell remembered. “He just got a little reassurance from his mother and then he kept coming back. He never missed a campout, didn’t miss a Scout meeting. He was a real good Scout and took on increasing leadership responsibilities in the troop.”
The Hales recalled that, through the short and brilliant trajectory of Quentin’s life, his intellect coupled with an unflinching work ethic caught the notice of many. When he needed assistance on a particular endeavor, they were there.
People believed in Quentin. And they believe in him still, as they will for the duration of all memory.
