Chapter 7: 1990

Anjelica Harris narrating

I rarely think of that day in 1936 any more. Most of my memories are pleasant ones of my life with Joe, my much better than average partner in life.

“Jelly” Anjelica Elizabeth Harris was born just before Christmas 1936. She married Aaron Fox in 1958, and gave us three beautiful grandchildren. “Molly” Mary Ellen Harris followed in 1938. She married Harry Andrews in 1961 and went one better, giving us four grandchildren. “Bobbie-Gee” Robert George Harris lived from 1940-2003, and took over the farm as dairy/arable farmer; Bobbie-Gee was a quiet, shy man who never married but was always smiling as loving favorite uncle to all the children in the family. “Hughie” Hugh Browne Harris, born 1944, took over the dairy and now his only son Joe runs it.

Joe and I delivered new combat aircraft for as long as we could during the war, relying heavily on Granny Harris to look after the homestead as we traversed the skies in our lonely flights, helping the war effort the best way we could. That came to an end in1944 when “Hughie” was born and I had to stay home, by then Granny was 75 and five kids ages 12 down to zero would be too much for her. The wonderfully kind and generous Granny Harris passed on in 1953 and still missed every day of our lives.

I only entered politics for the benefit of local issues and only served two years in the House, and glad to get away from there at the end of my two-year term. My biggest regret was that I had to dash away from Joe’s deathbed to debate in Washington and vote on a bill dear to our hearts and missed the first few minutes of his funeral. Those 39 years we spent together were wonderful years and losing my suitcase and being rescued by my real life hero was the best thing that ever happened to me.

The end

Note: Mrs Anjelica Harris died in 1996 at the farm which had been her home for 66 years, surrounded by children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, to many to count as they were blessed with the energy of their beloved forebears.

Colonel Joey Harris never went into space, but he was part of the training program for pilots at Houston until he retired and died in 2009 a venerable old man of 79 who had no end of wonderful stories to tell about early space exploration; he had three children and seven grandchildren.

More notes: this is pure fiction, none of these people exist, it is a fictional story, told to entertain me and none prepared to tarry a while ad listen alongside me. A person of colour (sorry, I’m English and use my original mother tongue when I can) has never represented Montana in the House of Representatives. A woman Jeanette Rankin (1880-1973) did represent Montana twice, 1917-19, 1941-43 for the Republicans, a lifelong suffragette campaigner and pacifist, she voted against declaring war on Germany in 1917 and was the only member of Congress to vote against declaring war on Japan in 1941; she was instrumental in introducing the 19th Congressional Amendment granting universal voting rights to women and was politically active for over 60 years.

Although the story may appear to align itself to the present Black Lives Matter, the story and all of its plot points were determined 5 years ago when I started the story, and dropped it back the, using some of the details for new characters for a different novel completed between 2016 and 2019. It was a pleasure to return to the plot and complete it during the long COVID-19 lockdown and presented to you now in its completed form.

However, my sentiments that there is only one human race and we should learn to live in harmony and respect, whatever god we admit to and to whatever tribal sensibilities we might prefer to live by, that shouldn’t affect our respect for the liberty and fraternity of us all in the single community that is mankind.