Though elderly people don’t often go out seeking a fresh start, John’s grandfather was different. John implies that as his grandfather grew lonelier, there was nothing to keep him in Gilead, even his family. Notably, the same seems to have been true for the town’s few Black families; it’s suggested that although they loved Gilead, they didn’t feel welcome or wanted here. The church fire was apparently part of that, and it seemed to prompt John’s grandfather to give up on the town, too. John himself is unfamiliar with the Black church’s full story or doesn’t share it, suggesting that he’s not as conversant with matters of racial justice as his grandfather was.