If Clyde could be saved, it would be by Nettie Mae’s strength alone. She would only give in to fear and weep and tear at her hair and shake her powerless fists at the blank gray Heavens if Clyde were lost. Then they all would be lost, every child she had borne, every person she had loved. Only then—when no one was left to rely on her cold and stoic presence—would Nettie Mae surrender to fear.
