This is Justin from The Generation Y, and we're doing a four-part series on rambling the story of

Khalif Browder, a young boy falsely accused of stealing a backpack and held at Rikers Island for three

years without trial. This story is about a young life caught in the middle of the Justice System,

listened to Generation Y on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

On July 19, during dinner, announcement was made of the departure of sister Rogers after an illness

of eight days. This was the beginning of a great time of sorrow for Bethabara and for me. A strange

kind of fever had broken out amongst us, and most of those living in Bethabara had it in more or less

a serious form. My doctor was much worried for the usual treatment for fever gave little relief.

Of those who left us, sister Rogers was the first, but not the last.

Next came Catherine Cidle, and it seemed almost impossible that only a few short weeks before she

had traveled south with us. Her husband missed her, sadly, and it was only a few days later that he

returned from a visit to Bethania, oppressed by the feeling of utter weariness, which we were

learning to recognize as the first symptom of the disease. He did not seem very ill at first,

but when hope was expressed for his recovery, he shook his head. And so it was.

And then my Martin. Perhaps because of his unremitting efforts for others, he was seriously ill from

the first. He saw what was coming. His pain was intense, as it always was in the earlier stages

of the fever. His request was, stay by me and hold my hand, hold it tight. And when the fever

mounted, when the terrible red splotches broke out on his body, when delirium came, he still felt

my presence, and was quieted as I held his hand in mine, spoke gently to him, or saying some of our

best loved hymns. Then he became unconscious of pain or weariness, but we were still hand in hand

when the call came that took him back to the eternal home. Others were laid to rest beside him,

but I was stunned and rebellious, and nothing seemed to matter much. The fever that took Martin

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