title: Ashes of the Dead
author: Reed, Joel B.
description: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us...." Charles Dickens could have been writing about life in the sleepy town of Live Oak, Texas, as America drifted into the brave new world of the 'Sixties. It was a time of great prosperity. The world seemed larger then and life in the country seemed simple. The bad things that filled the evening news were far away and rarely touched the lives of folk in Rutherford County. Even so, there was a dark side to the American Dream rarely acknowledged and seldom given voice. Part of this was the body of Jim Crow law still on the books. A greater part was the anger and jealousy and bitter disappointment kept locked below the surface, rarely making an appearance except in vicious gossip. All this was fused together by religious belief that affirmed this was exactly what the Creator intended. And no one was left untouched. The Stone family was no exception. Sheriff John Stone and his wife, Milly, were well thought of in the community. Yet their first child was born far too soon after their marriage. Nor was it forgotten that they had taken in two 'Meskin' orphans, or that the kids were bright and talented. Or that when the village slut was orphaned by her father going to prison, the Stones took her in, too. Ashes of the Dead is the story of how the Stone family not only survives, but thrives. It is a testament to the power of love to overcome and transform the lives of those who refuse to accept human foolishness and despair.