Welcome back to the Season 2 finale of Family Ghosts.

You're listening to a story called Bone Hill by Martha Redbone, and you're about to

start act 2, which means if you haven't already listened to act 1, halt.

Go back and do that before you listen to this episode.

At the end of act 1, Martha told us that her grandmother, Easter, had fallen in love

with Billy Bone, a black coal miner from Mississippi.

And Easter's mother, Martha's great grandmother, Liza, was fearful about what would happen

to the family's reputation if Easter married Billy.

But Easter and Billy were deeply in love with each other, and eventually, Liza relented.

Let's get back to Martha.

Time passes.

And my grandma Easter did move into that coal miner's house on the hill.

And my grandpa, Billy, is a good man.

He takes Easter's son as his own, even gives him his name, William Bone Jr.

So he's still Jr.

They have two more children, my mama Janice, and the baby girl Sweetcake.

These are some happy years for Grandma Easter and that house up on the hill.

It's the turn of the 60s.

Jr. is a young man getting ready to make his way in the world.

My mama Janice is the soon to be valedictorian looking to get out of those mountains so she

doesn't have to bake cakes and be stuck at home forever.

Daydream in Sweetcake is a romantic teenager and great Grandma Liza still sitting up on that

...