“It wasn’t only to build strong family bonds that we lived our lives so closely. It was also for protection. Our family was met with more than its share of bad luck, but we tried to shield and protect the children from it as much as we could. Some of it they understood, but much of it we were able to hide from them. Despite some bumps in the road, most of them did well. But a few had their troubles, and let me tell you, do you know what it’s like watching your child grow into adulthood and fall into the wrong crowd? Or to see them follow some ignorant way of life—the morals and values we instilled in them just dropped by the wayside like a bag of trash?”

She continued, her voice escalating, becoming harsher, “You feel helpless, that’s how you feel,” she said. “It tears your heart out to watch them make mistake after mistake, knowing that the damage they are doing can follow them for the rest of their life. We spent their childhoods emphasizing family loyalty, and then in a wink, when things get gritty, they couldn’t care less.”

“Skip ahead, Helen,” Carmen said. “She doesn’t need all that background.”

Helen calmed down and lowered her voice. “My sister’s children didn’t give her half as much heartache as mine gave me. I feel like I spent most of my time apologizing to school administrators and other mothers, always defending my kids for whatever mess they found themselves in. You see, I knew they were rebelling because things at home weren’t what you’d call pleasant. Their grandfather was an angry man. A righteous man. And bad luck followed him everywhere he went, with much of it trickling down to those of us under his care. We all lived on the family land, but no matter that my husband was also a strong man who tried to rule his own household, my father refused to step aside and let us raise our own families. He ruled everything, and I wanted to move away. But everyone else wanted to stay.”