Margaret Ellis came to the courthouse in early spring.<\/p>\n
She was small.<\/p>\n
Her hair was white.<\/p>\n
She wore a green coat and carried a brown handbag.<\/p>\n
She asked the clerk whether she could speak with someone about her property.<\/p>\n
The clerk directed her to the public information office.<\/p>\n
I happened to be walking through the lobby.<\/p>\n
I recognized her from the photograph.<\/p>\n
"Mrs. Ellis?"<\/p>\n
She turned.<\/p>\n
"Yes?"<\/p>\n
"I'm Amara Whitlock."<\/p>\n
She looked at me.<\/p>\n
Then she smiled.<\/p>\n
"I know who you are."<\/p>\n
I nodded.<\/p>\n
"I received your letter."<\/p>\n
Her smile faded.<\/p>\n
"I wasn't sure anyone would read it."<\/p>\n
"I did."<\/p>\n
She looked down at her handbag.<\/p>\n
"I don't know what to do now."<\/p>\n
I told her that I could not advise her about her case.<\/p>\n
But I could explain how to find legal assistance.<\/p>\n
She nodded.<\/p>\n
"I don't need special treatment."<\/p>\n
"I understand."<\/p>\n
"I just want my house back."<\/p>\n
I looked at her.<\/p>\n
"Then you need someone who can review the property records and explain your options."<\/p>\n
She nodded again.<\/p>\n
I gave her the name of a legal aid organization.<\/p>\n
I told her to bring every document she had.<\/p>\n
The photograph.<\/p>\n
The deed.<\/p>\n
The tax receipts.<\/p>\n
The arrest paperwork.<\/p>\n
She thanked me.<\/p>\n
Then she asked whether I had ever seen her farmhouse.<\/p>\n
I shook my head.<\/p>\n
She opened her handbag.<\/p>\n
Inside was another photograph.<\/p>\n
This one showed the house from the road.<\/p>\n
A white farmhouse.<\/p>\n
A wooden porch.<\/p>\n
A large oak tree beside the driveway.<\/p>\n
She pointed to the tree.<\/p>\n
"My husband planted that when we got married."<\/p>\n
I looked at the photograph.<\/p>\n
"It must have been beautiful."<\/p>\n
"It was."<\/p>\n
She smiled.<\/p>\n
"Every spring, the branches filled with flowers."<\/p>\n
She put the photograph away.<\/p>\n
Then she looked at me.<\/p>\n
"Do you think I'll get it back?"<\/p>\n
I took a breath.<\/p>\n
"I don't know."<\/p>\n
She nodded.<\/p>\n
"That's what everybody says."<\/p>\n
I understood why she was disappointed.<\/p>\n
But I could not promise her something I did not control.<\/p>\n
I walked her to the legal aid office.<\/p>\n
A lawyer named Daniel Reeves agreed to review her documents.<\/p>\n
He asked her to return the following week.<\/p>\n
Margaret thanked him.<\/p>\n
Then she turned toward me.<\/p>\n
"I hope you know what you did."<\/p>\n
I looked at her.<\/p>\n
"What do you mean?"<\/p>\n
"You listened."<\/p>\n
She smiled.<\/p>\n
"That's more than anybody else did."<\/p>\n
I watched her leave.<\/p>\n
The brown handbag rested against her side.<\/p>\n
The photograph was inside.<\/p>\n
The house was still gone.<\/p>\n
But she had someone who could help her fight for it.<\/p>\n
And sometimes, that was the first thing a person needed.<\/p>\n
Source: kaylestore.net<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Margaret Ellis came to the courthouse in early spring. She was small. Her hair was white. She wore a green coat and carried a brown handbag. She asked the clerk … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sharestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10818"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10831,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10818\/revisions\/10831"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nClick here to continue reading: PART 11: The New Sheriff Asked Me What Justice Should Look Like, and I Told Him It Had to Begin With the People Who Were Afraid<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"