Before the turn of the Twentieth century a young couple full of hope began to build a future together. It takes time before they are blessed with a son. He fulfills part of their dream but for the woman it wasn’t complete. Her role was to be a wife and mother. She suffered overwhelming grief as one miscarriage is followed by another and another. Her feelings of failure and loss affect her emotional and mental stability. This causes shame for her and the family as she sinks deeper into depression.
Across the state her father is raising her younger siblings after her mother’s death. He isn’t alone. He found a woman to be nursemaid to his children. She is kind and loving to them all, including him. But they can’t marry. He is White and she is Black in the Jim Crow south. They have a son who joins the family and later another child arrives. The mother does not survive. The son is clearly Black but the new daughter appears to be White. Because their heritage is known in the community the man cannot publicly raise these children as his. The son goes to live with family in the Black community where he will be accepted. The baby girl’s fair skin, blue eyes, and light hair will set her apart in that environment.
To save his eldest and his youngest he secretly takes the baby to the distraught daughter. No one knows the truth of the little girl’s identity. His decision and this loving act begins her new life passing as white.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Santayana