Correction

I misspelled the author's name. It's Wiley Cash. 

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The Last Ballad (adult historical fiction)

     Labor Day is the last day of the summer three day summer holidays. Like Memorial Day and July 4th it's seen as a time to relax, celebrate, get together with friends and family, and maybe travel. Unlike the others, however, there is no encouragement to celebrate the largely unsung heroes and sheroes that sacrificed and fought, taking incredible risks that led to better lives for most of us.

     That is so wrong. We need to remember what they had to endure just getting by day to day: the grinding shifts for poverty pay, the hazardous work conditions that shortened too many lives either quickly through accidents or slowly through illness, child labor foreclosing futures of children as young as four, and the unsafe, squalid places families were forced to call home. We need to remember the incredible courage it took workers to fight for change. 

     Riley Cash's The Last Ballad brings this message home powerfully. Although it's a work of fiction, it's based on the of the life and murder of a real woman,  Ella May Wiggins, and a brutally suppressed mill strike that went down in Cash's hometown of Gastonia, North Carolina. 

     When readers meet Ella she's been called into the office of the mill she works at and grilled about several recent absences. She'd been tending to her desperately ill young daughter. She had already lost a son. "Willie would have been four years old by now, and Ella turned her attention to the soft, high-pitched whistle of Rose's lungs and remembered holding Willie this way before he'd died from the same whooping cough disease. The thought had made her hold Rose more tightly against her chest. She wanted to keep her daughter on this earth and in her arms as long as possible."

     Ella works a twelve hour night six nights a week for only $9. There's never enough food for the family, not to mention enough money for real medicine, shoes, stuff like that. She doctors Rose with a whiskey and honey concoction. She's been carrying a union leaflet in her pocket inviting workers to a rally in support of striking workers in Gastonia who were about to be evicted from their company owned housing. She's contemplating going. When she is told the strike will only get her killed she counters by saying that living the way they are will kill her and her babies.

     Ella is a talented singer who makes up her own songs. She's also an eloquent speaker. When she gets on the stage and addresses the crowd she touches their minds and hearts. She becomes a leader in the movement. 

     But she's also got a target on her back now. The rich mill owners and their friends in high places will do whatever it takes to shut down unions lest the reforms they're demanding cut into the profits. And she's most definitely on their radar.

     The Last Ballad is a very powerful, evocative narrative. Told by multiple narrators, it lets you see the story line evolving from different perspectives. When I read the book I felt like I was there. So I consider it to be a most excellent literary experience...

     ...and so much more. At a time when those in power are trying to whitewash America's history to be a narrative of nothing but purity and excellence it's essential to keep alive the knowledge of injustices so that we have a chance to really become a nation of liberty and justice for all.

     And the evils brought to the light in the book are not just a relic of the dusty past. Wages are not keeping up with the cost of living for too many families. Corporations and people in government are fighting to undo environmental protections in the service of obscenely huge profits. And unions are being constantly beleaguered. 

On a purrrsonal note, I have very mixed feelings about the holiday we just celebrated. We most definitely should honor those who had basically their futures taken from them whether dying on foreign soil or returning disabled. But we must do it in a way that doesn't normalize or glorify war. Under some circumstances engaging in warfare is a tragic necessity. Like World War II. But we must limit going to war to such grim situations. None of the wars that America has engaged in my 75 years on this planet have met this criteria. And with the current willingness to accept civilian deaths as collateral damage it's all the more necessary to drastically limit the circumstances under which we go to war to those of dire necessity. 1) Stop sanitizing wars. Show us the true ugliness. Let us see the flag draped coffins ⚰️ coming home. Remind us of the millions squandered on war. Eisenhower, a Republican, reminded us that every dollar spent on war gear is unavailable to help citizens in need. 2) Put political pressures on presidents to use their words, not their bombs whenever possible. 3) Create non military ways for teens from low income families to have access to higher education without amassing crippling amounts of debt. 4) And please let's find a way to honor 🎖 Veterans without glamorizing or sanitizing war.

A great big shout out goes out to this nation's veterans.

Jules Hathaway 

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My whole family

At my graduation party including my husband who does not like interacting with strangers or having his picture taken. They were all there for me. 

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Precious memories

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Graduation Eve

My program put on a really sweet send off party including predictions. At the end we put on our robes and went outside for pictures. 

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Graduation News

Toward the end of my last semester I was encouraged to go to the career center office to help make cat toys for shelters. When I arrived I was confused. There was a crowd looking at me and no one was making cat toys. It was a surprise graduation party that had taken a lot of people months to put together. There were decorations, refreshments, cards, gifts, a slide show on one wall, and the Graduation News with well wishes and congratulations from so many friends and family members. It was hard deciding which pages to post. This spread had pictures of me with my advisor and me performing post stroke (quite appropriately I'm Still Standing) in the UMaine Drag Show. 

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My diploma

I was crossing the bridge into downtown Orono when I had the epiphany that made my graduation school application inevitable. There was no guarantee that I'd be accepted into the program or complete it. But if I didn't try I'd be haunted by what ifs the rest of my life. I had no idea it would take seven years and include stroke recovery. Thinking back I realize if I'd decided no and taken the kind of job available to a stay at home mom with a gap in work history big enough to drive a big rig through I I probably wouldn't have had such a robust recovery. The program gave me a sense of meaning and purpose, an important goal to work towards, the right balance of challenge and support in achieving it, and a community that was there for me for better and worse. That and the love of my family were what had me working hard from day one instead of being bogged down in depression or 😠 anger.

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