POLITICS

Oklahoma family drove 36 hours to honor Ruth Bader Ginsburg in Washington, D.C.

By Carmen Forman, Staff writer, cforman@oklahoman.com
The Oklahoma Women's March organized a candlelight vigil honoring the lifestyle of action and resistance of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the Oklahoma Supreme Court building Saturday night, September 19, 2020. [Doug Hoke/The Oklahoman]

Grief makes people do funny things.

A Tahlequah family dealt with their grief over the death Friday of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg by driving more than 36 hours over the weekend to pay their respects.

Mere hours after Amy Edwards, 43, heard the news that Ginsburg, 87, died of complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer, she was on a whirlwind road trip to Washington, D.C., with her husband and son.

Destination: the U.S. Supreme Court.

Edwards had waffled over the spur-of-the-moment idea for a few hours before her husband, Bill, and son, Dylan Abel, enthusiastically agreed to the road trip.

She wanted to attend a vigil for the late Supreme Court justice and feminist icon, but asked her son to make the final decision.

“If you say that you want to go, then we’ll get in the car and go,” she told him.

By 11 p.m. Friday it was decided. By midnight, the family was on the road with at least 18 hours of driving before they reached the nation’s capital.

They drove through the night.

Abel, 17, looked up to Ginsburg — a bond he shared with his mother.

A high school trombone player, Abel named his instrument after Ginsburg, calling it RBG for short.

“It was funny at first and also a tribute to someone that I look up to,” he said.

In recent years, Ginsburg, a liberal leader who served on the court for 27 years, developed a cult following of mostly young people who affectionately referred to her by her initials or the nickname the Notorious RBG.

Ginsburg touched so many lives because she was determined to help regular people, Edwards said.

“She was this tiny, formidable force, and she believed in truth and justice and the idea that we all deserve the same privileges and chances,” she said.

Edwards tweeted about her family’s impromptu road trip — a post that went viral.

After requests from strangers across the country, Edwards left condolences in the form of hundreds of pebbles placed at the Supreme Court building, a nod to a Jewish custom in which mourners leave stones on graves.

Edwards and her family also left a short note that starts out, “you can’t have truth without Ruth.”

After driving more than 2,400 miles, Edwards and her family returned to Oklahoma on Sunday having spent more time on the road than in Washington, D.C.

“Through the years, we’ll look back and think, 'we got to be there in that historic moment and pay honor to somebody we all look up to so much,'" Edwards said.

As for Abel, he turns 18 this month and is excited to vote for the first time this November.

He said he could see how Ginsburg's death may factor into the presidential race. But Abel's had his mind made up for months.

"I’ve already been decided," he said. "I’m definitely going to vote blue."