An Elegant Defense by Matt Richtel

Author:Matt Richtel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2019-01-20T05:00:00+00:00

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Merredith

Merredith, born just two years after Linda and nine hundred miles away in Denver, woke up one morning in 1977 with a low-grade fever. Her joints hurt. It felt like a vise was crushing them. Merredith began to experience mysterious symptoms intensely through her teens—a low-level surfacing of aches, pains, and fevers largely left untreated. The doctors thought she might have mono.

Merredith was in much the same boat as her mother, who would experience unusual spells, body pain, and swelling, and often had trouble digesting her food. Merredith remembers her mother with her hand held over her forehead, feeling faint. Was she ill? It was hard to pin down. Maybe it was her childhood, and the secret, and the stress of a life spent feeling like an outsider.

Merredith’s family lived in a neighborhood called Park Hill. In the late 1960s, the area was white but integrating. Neighbors didn’t like that. On multiple occasions, Merredith’s family came home to find flyers posted on their house urging them to leave before the colored folks arrived.

Merredith Branscombe. (Courtesy of Merredith Branscombe)

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