Far From the Tree

Jessica invites Grace, Maya, and Joaquin into her house. She explains that their mother died in a truck accident a long time ago when she was 21. She decides to “start at the beginning” (341) and tell the siblings everything she knows. Melissa got pregnant with Joaquin at seventeen and was kicked out of her parents’ house, and her father “burned all of the pictures of her” (342). Melissa was in love with her high school sweetheart, Joaquin’s father, but he was deported before Melissa knew that she was pregnant. Joaquin is named after his father, whose entire family also got deported. Melissa was heartbroken and “met another boy” (343) and got pregnant with Grace. Grace was given up for adoption, and Joaquin was removed from the home because “it wasn’t a safe place” (344) for him.

Melissa tried to get Joaquin back, but when she got pregnant with Maya, everything “fell apart again” (344), and Melissa “couldn’t keep her own life together” (344). After Melissa lost her children, Jessica says her sister was “untethered” with nowhere to go and no one to turn to. Still, Melissa loved her children and spent the rest of her life wondering about them.