left that room, I understood that they had no intention of accepting our mother’s decision.
The Halloran farm had belonged to our family for three generations, but it had never produced easy money. Vivian left home at eighteen, while Dale built a comfortable career in insurance and rarely returned except for Christmas. I stayed after our father became ill, eventually giving up my own plans to manage the land and care for our mother. For twenty years, I handled planting schedules, equipment repairs, bank meetings, hired workers, and nearly $180,000 in operating expenses each season. During the final decade of Mom’s life, I also prepared
