October 18, 2018:
Ivy and Jeff, June 1912, Riverton West Virginia.
Sunday hats, youth, beauty, earnestness. Fine-looking young couple starting out together.
There's good that comes from their union. Me, for one. My mother, and the family who were so very accepting and kind to her.
There's also great evil.
Not directly from their genes. Rather from their decisions, or, if the story is accurate, his decisions. When they cast aside the pregnant teenager who mothered my mother they set in motion a train of abuse and rape and murder spanning the breadth of the continent. Tragedy after tragedy. All avoidable, if right and compassion could have been allowed to overrule old pop Jeff's starched-collar prejudice.