Tall Tail

Afterword

Sickle-cell anemia occurs most frequently in African Americans and people from the sub-Saharan part of Africa. In the New World those of Caribbean descent have it and it can be found in people from Central or South America. Actually, it shows up now in all ethnicities but the above-mentioned peoples have the highest incidence, especially African Americans.

Francisco Selisse was from the Caribbean and Marcia West Holloway’s mother was mixed race, but in the eighteenth century dark enough to be identified as African American. Ailee would have been deemed an octoroon, meaning she was one-eighth African American, her father being white. Those who read history will recall the famously glamorous Octoroon Ball in New Orleans, which was celebrated for decades. As so many have written about it, it must have been one of the best parties in New Orleans, which is saying something.

But both Francisco and Ailee carried the genetic trait, which probably meant that Marcia had full-blown sickle-cell anemia. If two people who carry the trait mate, the numbers, if they have four children, are one without, one with full-blown sickle-cell anemia, and two that carry the trait. It is for this reason that most states now mandate a screening of infants. As adults, they will be able to make informed decisions about whether to have children if they marry someone who also carries the trait or if they have disease as opposed to the trait. If they do go ahead, they can be vigilant about their offsprings’ health.

Human beings for centuries, millennia even, could describe illnesses. We often knew which ones were hereditary. Today we have much more information and instead of saying dropsy runs in the family, we can be precise.

What we can do about such diseases when they present themselves is another matter. When you start reading all the literature about cancers, sickle-cell anemia, multiple sclerosis, et cetera, it’s a wonder any of us stay upright for long.

Mother Nature will work her will one way or the other.

As for Moses, he more than likely carried the gene as well, given the pains for which his father, DoRe, suffered. When Moses’s years of work were up, he remained in York. He’d learned of Ailee’s suicide when Charles wrote Bartholomew. He continued to work for the Graves, displaying an aptitude for math. Bartholomew taught him and they worked on many projects together.

Moses married in his forties. He never spoke of Ailee. He doted on his two sons, who also became mathematicians.

Jeffrey and Maureen Holloway lived a good life. If Maureen felt any guilt about killing her first husband, she never showed it. When she died, Jeffrey married the much younger, gorgeous Marcia West. It was a fruitful marriage.

The Schuylers and the Wests became part of the Underground Railroad, although there were no trains then, so the term wasn’t used. That’s another story.

All our ancestors made decisions that affect us today. It has always been thus. They did the best they could with what they had, and so must we.