Take My Hand

In 2016, Civil looks back at herself in 1973. She realizes she was protected from the “humiliations of Jim Crow life” growing up and that she and her family lived a “dignified life in undignified times” (141).

In 1973, a woman helps Civil to the curb after her accident. Seeing that Civil is not badly hurt, she calls Civil’s father for her. He arrives and takes Civil to St. Jude, a hospital more sympathetic to Black people than Professional, the hospital where the girls were sterilized.

Civil is not at fault in the accident, but she blames herself for what happened to the girls, wondering if taking them off birth control caused Mrs. Seager to take this action. Her mother, Ty, and Alicia show up to the hospital, and as they all are leaving, she tells them what happened to the girls; they are as horrified as she is. Civil insists on visiting the girls at the hospital.

At the hospital, Mace blames Civil, pointing out that she is their nurse and should have prevented this from happening. Civil says she will stay with the girls until they get better, and Mace replies that they will never be better. As she sits with the girls in the hospital room, she briefly thinks that maybe the surgery was for the best with India’s disability and the family’s poverty.