#9

Continuation from blog #4 to finish my reflection on the rest of the book.

Rose-Mary gets a job as a teacher in Battle Mountain. Her students really like her because she runs her classroom like she runs her home with no rules and a do whatever you want to do attitude. After a while you can start to see that Rose-Mary hates teaching because all the other teachers and principal thinks she's a terrible teacher. Which is funny that she cares so much what they think because Rose-Mary has never cared what other people said or thought about her. When the principal threatens to fire her Jeannette and Lori start to grade her papers and correct her spelling mistakes. You can continue to see that the kids are the adults and the parents are the kids which is why Rose-Mary is incapable of being organised and being in control but they do everything they can to make Rose-Mary successful. She ends up keeping her job as a teacher but new problems arise in the Walls family clan. Rex takes advantage of Rose-Mary's paycheck and he waits at the school until he can escort her to the bank to cash in the check. Rex takes all the money and leaves nothing for the kids and Rose-Mary. Rex sum times brings groceries home but for the most part he disappears. Rex tells Jeannette one day that she's the favourite child. " I think you’re the only one around who still has faith in me. I don’t know what I’d do if you ever lost it". Jeannette from that point on promises she's never gonna give up on Rex. Brian finally figures out what the Green Lantern is all about and he tells Jeannette it's a bad place. The past incidents have shown how much Rex and Rose-Mary take advantage of their kids. Rex and Rose-Mary seem to always put their kids in the middle of their arguments. Brian starts to see the truth about his parents and sees that Rex lets them down frequently even though he wants to believe that he never does. Even with all the problems Jeannette likes Battle Mountain. Rex is continuing his invention process, Lori and Rose-Mary paint and read together, Brian plays with other kids and Maureen plays outside naked. She starts to believe that packing up and moving is going to stop. They continue to live in Battle Mountain and Jeannette turns 8. She meets a boy named Billy Deel who's 12 and they start hanging out everyday. Like The Walls kids, Billy doesn't have a lot of parent supervision and he pretty much does whatever he wants. Jeannette and Billy continue to hang out and people start thinking that they are dating but Jeannette tells people they aren't. Billy tries to give Jeannette his mothers ring but she refuses to accept it and the next day Billy tells other kids that Jeannette accepted the ring. She goes and tells him their not dating and they continue with life. They go out play hide and go seek with the other kids and Billy tries to go hide in the shack that Jeannette was hiding in. Billy tries to rape Jeannette but she fights back. Jeannette runs away and later in the day billy comes to the Walls Resistance and starts firing off his BB guns at Jeannette,Brian and Lori. Lori goes and gets Rex's pistol and give s it to Jeannette, Jeannette fires it at Billy but misses. The police squad car comes by later and asks what happened and they are asked to come in the next day to be questioned. That night Rex tells that the kids to pack up, it's time to move on again to Phoenix. As much as you hope that the Walls family continue to have success in Battle Mountain you know from the past summary that their luck is eventually going to run out which is exactly what happened. As they start driving to Phoenix Jeannette asks Rose-Mary if there going to stay with Grandma Smith but she tells Jeannette that she passed away a bit ago. Jeannette can't believe that Rose-Mary didn't tell her about it but they continue on. Rose-Mary explains that since Grandma Smith died she got one of her houses with a bit of money. It seems very typical behaviour of Rose-Mary not to tell her kids important things that are going on. The saddest part is that Rose-Mary doesn't even seem to care that her mother has died, all her mother was to her was a free house and cash. Rose-Mary now has the freedom to do everything that her mother forbid her to do. Jeannette on the other hand feels like she been betrayed by Rose-Marry because she never told her about her grandma dieing. Grandma smith recognised Jeannette as a special individual and told her that she was going to do something important when she grew up, Rose-Mary has never said anything like that to Jeannette before. They get to the new house and it's so big that Jeannette thinks that two families could live in it. Lori, Jeannette and Brian all start going to a new school where they all get placed into gifted classes. Lori and Jeannette both like the idea of the special classes but Brian doesn't like it since he's the youngest in his class. They all reassure themselves that it's better to go to Emerson then to go to the public

Farthest left view of Emerson

Middle View of Emerson

Farther down view of Emerson (the school keeps going down towards the last blue canopee)

school at St Mary's Church. The nurse does an eye exam on Lori and she receives glasses in which she later decides to become a painter like Rose-Mary. A few weeks after they move into their new house Rose-Mary starts painting and writing all day long. Rex gets a job in the Electrical Union pretty easily and one night brings home new bicycles for the kids to ride around town. This is the first time ever where Rex has bought something like this for his kids. The kids start riding their bikes everywhere especially to the library
where they are all well known by the librarians. At home the Walls family installs their first telephone, they add a big record player in a wooden cabinet and even buy an electric washing machine. Even with all these luxurious items the house still has its problems. Theirs cockroaches everywhere but Rose-Mary refuses to set tape traps to kill them. There are also so many termites in the floor boards that if you step on the wrong floor board your legs would go flying threw but they did put a metal can in the hole to patch it up. This is the first time in the book were you can start to see the kids Independence growing stronger as if there becoming their own person. During the night Rex and Rose-Mary refuse to lock up the doors or windows because they tell the kids that they need fresh air. This leads to intruders entering their home at night time which causes Maureen to have nightmares and Jeannette to get molested by a pervert. After this incident Brian and Jeannette decide to go pervert hunting sum nights of the week. They end up telling Rex  and Rose-Mary about the pervert situation but they still refuse to lock up. You can start to see that Rex is a hypocrite by getting angry about the whole pervert situation but he still wouldn't lock up the house. City life begins to get to Rex because he wants to go on adventures and go into the wilderness to look for interesting things. That day Rex hears on the radio about a woman called the cops about having a mountain lion on her property and Rex was just shocked. He gathers all the kids and tells them their going to the zoo to show them
that animals are not as dangerous as people believe them to be. They get to the zoo and Rex has a staring competition with an alligator and it almost looked like the alligator blinked first. Rex then moves onto the cheetah cage were he goes directly to the cage bars, sits down and starts petting the cheetah. Rex then tells Jeannette to put her hand out. Jeannette was hesitant at first but did what Rex said to do, the cheetah ended up licking her hand. People started to gather and they got banned from the zoo. Rex shows that he would take the chance of his children life but he also gave her an experience very few people would get. After this Rex loses his job once,twice third time and then gets fired from the electrical union and he must do odd jobs to scrape by. At this point all the money they inherited from Grandma Smith is gone and the kids assume regular dumpster diving expeditions. Maureen starts playing with her imaginary friends but Rose-Mary thinks its time to enroll her into preschool. In order for Maureen to go to preschools she needs new dresses so Mom goes shoplifting but gets caught into buying a $14 dress. Rex and Rose-Mary find a way to get extra money at the bank. Rex opens a new account takes out the money at the exact same time as Rose-Mary goes to the bank machine to take out the same money. They get double money for the same transaction, the kids don't like that they do it but they know they need the money pretty badly. December comes along and the Walls family gets a tree that they put up and decorate. On Christmas day they go out to church and get kicked out again for Rex's loud behaviour since he's drunk again. When they get home Rex lights the tree on fire and ruins Christmas for the kids since everything is ruined. Rex just laughs and acts like it's not a big deal though he ruined Christmas but no one screamed at Rex they just go their separate ways. Jeannette states "When Dad goes crazy, we all have our own ways of shutting down and closing off, and that was what we did that night". You can see the coping skills the children use to adjust to both the physical and emotional violence they face nearly every day living in Phoenix. They cheat and steal, get food from a dumpster, and put out the fire their father deliberately sets but their still not angry. The following spring Jeannette turns 10 but since birthdays are not a big thing around the Walls family house they don't really do anything. But Rex does take Jeannette outside and ask her what she wants most for her birthday. She asks him if it can be anything, Rex agrees anything. She stumbles upon her words for a few minutes but Rex tells her to say it. Jeannette says" Do you think you can maybe stop drinking?" Rex thinks and goes quiet for a few minutes but says back "You must be awfully ashamed of your old man" Jeannette tells him that she's not, she just thinks it would help the family by saving a few bucks and making him happier. Rex thinks long and hard and asks Jeannette to leave him alone for sum peace and quiet time. The next few days Rex tries to quiet alcohol but he's having terrible pains because of it. He tells the kids to stay clear from him awhile during his recovery process. Rex looks sick for the next two weeks but he hasn't touched alcohol yet. To get his mind of it Rex tells the family their going on a family vacation to the Grand Canyon and everyone is so excited because they have not had an adventure in a while. They pack up and put everything they need in the car and start driving off. Rex trying to be a show off sees how fast the car can go and the car ends up dieing on them. They try and fix it but it's no use, Rex tells them their going to have to walk the 80 miles back home. Lucky for them a lady in a Buick sees them and asks them if they'd like a lift back home, they agree and they all get into the van. The woman keeps calling them poor but Jeannette reassures her their not and the rest of the drive back the car is tense and quiet. They finally arrive back home and they thank her and the woman continues on her way and Rex disappears. You can start to see that Rex is a good man at heart for dealing with the pain of staying sober for his kids but you can almost see his character not have enough strength to stay sober. You can also see his immature behaviour with trying to test his limits on an old car that he knows wouldn't last much longer. After three days Rex returns home after trying to pick fights with the kids and he starts destroying the china cabinet. The kids know that he has gone back to drinking and their not happy bout it. Rex declares he wants to see Rose-Mary and he goes and finds her hiding in the bath-tub. They fight and then make up laughing like it never happened. The next day Rose-Mary goes to buy a cheap car from the dealership. Rose-Mary returns home and tells the kids their leaving to West Virgina where Rex's family live. Rex doesn't like this idea and he doesn't want to go until last minute when he sees his family sitting in the car ready to go. You can start to see that Rex's drinking problems are connected to his masculinity issues. Rex has always been the head of the household by telling his kids he'll never let them down, getting jobs sum times, escorting Rose-Mary to the bank to control the finances and by teaching his kids not to be scared of things. In the past events you can see that his masculinity has been challenged when a woman in a much nicer car then they'll ever own offers them a ride back home. Rex's self-sufficiency esteems is crushed and he can't face the kids and his wife after accepting the girls offer in front of them. But when the kids and Rose-Mary tell him he has to go with them to West-Virgina because he's the head of the family he is quickly back to his fatherly role. They head off towards Welch in their new Piggy Bank special car that doesn't work as good as mom hoped it would. It will not go more than 20 miles per hours and it decides to break down an hour shy of the New Mexico Border but Rex gets it running again. It breaks done a couple more times after that but they finally get to Welch a month later. Jeannette and the other kids met Erma, Uncle Stanley and Ted who are Rex's parents and brother. Erma tells the kids that she never wants to be called grandma but Ted tells them they can call him pa. Erma shoves the kids downstairs where she tells them they'll be staying until they find another place to stay. Jeannette has a feeling that Erma is a mean woman and does not know how to raise children. The next morning the kids awaken to Uncle Stanley listening to the radio church program. Later in the day Rex and Rose-Mary take the kids on a tour of Welch. The rivers are filled with fecal matter and the town looks like its covered with coal dust from the mines. You can see that Welch isn't what Rose-Mary or the kids thought it would be like. This is probably the most important part in the entire part for Rex's character. You can see through Erma, Uncle Stanley and Ted's characters how Rex was raised. Uncle Stanley drinks way to much which shows why Rex has a drinking problem. Erma is a cold woman that doesn't mind being harsh which shows why Rex has anger problems. And you can see that Ted is the nice kind heart one which is why dad can be such a sweetheart at points in the book. You can see when Rex arrives in Welch he is quiet and looks like he's not happy to be back. There's probably a reason why he left Welch in the first place. You can also see Rose-Mary's character doesn't live in a reality world she lives in her own world where she thinks she can become a famous artist in the smallest, poorest town there is. A few weeks later Rose-Mary decides to enroll the kids into school so they set up a meeting with the

Welch Elementary School

principal of Welch Elementary. Rose-Mary never got the transfer papers from Emerson so she uses her persuasive ways to convince the principal. The principal asks the kids questions to see how smart they are but the kids could not answer the questions because they couldn't understand his accent. The principal thought they were just stupid so he put them in classes for students with learning disabilities. Jeannette's first day of grade 5 didn't go the way she planned. A group of African-American girls started to beat Jeannette up everyday during recess. Dinitia Hewitt the leader the of African girls isn't as bad as she seems though and Jeannette see's that and wonders why they aren't friends. One day Jeanette was walking home and saw a young black boy being chased by a dog. She raced over and chased the dog away and gave the young boy a piggy back ride back home. Dinitia saw what Jeannette did and she decided to befriend her. Dinitia invites Jeannette over to her house to do homework and she hesitates for a minute then agrees. Uncle Stanley offers Jeannette a ride until he finds out that she was going to the black part of town. He takes his offer back and Jeannette walks to Dinitia's house. She returns home later and Erma starts spurting out words about how black people are bad and how they can never be trusted. Jeannette confronts Erma about what she has just said and she argues back. Once Rose-Mary finds out what Jeannette did she starts yelling at her telling her not to argue with Erma and that sum times it's better just to be polite. Rose-Mary tells Jeannette to look for redeeming qualities in people which Jeannette does when she sees Dinitia. You can see as a ten year old, Jeannette is a lot more mature than girls her age. She sees everybody as individuals, she doesn't care what colour of skin they are. I think she's like this because everyone judged her for being poor so she doesn't judge because she knows the awful feeling. Rex and Rose-Mary decide they are going to go back to Phoenix to pick up the rest of their belongs and check up on the house. They live for Phoenix and the kids are left all alone with Erma. Erma tells Brian that his pants need mending and she tells him to follow her to her room. Erma tries to molest Brian but Jeannette was smart enough to follow them up to her room. Jeannette confronts Erma and so does Lori. Lori gets into a verbal and physical fight with Erma. Erma banishes the kids into the basement were they stay until Rex and Rose-Mary return. Once Rex hears what the kids did he starts yelling and he wouldn't listen to their side of what happened. Jeannette wonders if Rex had gotten molested by Erma at a young age too. After this Erma kicks them out and the Walls family moves into 93 Little Hobart Street. Jeannette explains the house as a "dinky little thing perched high up off the road on a hillside so steep that only the back of the house rested on the ground. The front, including a drooping porch, jutted precariously into the air, supported by tall, spindly cinder-block pillars. It had been painted white long time ago, but the paint, where it hadn’t been peeled off altogether, had turned a dismal gray.” “inside there where three rooms, each about ten feet by ten feet, facing onto the front porch. The house had no bathroom, but underneath it, behind one of the cinder-block pillars,was a closet-sized room with a toilet in a cement floor. The toilet wasn’t hooked up to any sewer or septic system. It just sat atop a hole about six feet deep. There was no running water indoors. A water spigot rose a few inches above the ground near the toilet, so you could get a bucket and tote water upstairs. While the house was wired for electricity, dad confessed that we could not at the moment afford to turn it on” You can see that the house is falling apart but everyones happy to be moved out of Erma's house. Rex seems to be proud of what he has found  his family and is thrilled that he doesn't have to see his mother everyday. Jeannette and Brian start digging holes for the foundation that Rex had marked off for the glass castle. It takes them a month to dig a big enough hole but they do it. Soon after Rex orders them to put the family's trash in it because they can't afford trash pickup every month. One day a large rat was found in their trash can and it scared Jeanette and the other kids but they ignored it because it ran away. That night Maureen kept screaming about how she heard the rat in the room. Jeannette turned on the light and sure enough the rat was a few inches away from Maureens face was the rat. The two girls started screaming and Brian came running in with a baseball bat. Brian kept missing and eventually the dog grabbed it and killed it. Jeannette kept a baseball bat beside her, Brian kept a machete next to his bed and Maureen kept having nightmares about the rat so she slept mostly at her friends house. This is the start of Maureens seperation from the family. You can see that she starts to depend on her friends and other families to teach her things about life. You can see that she is going to be raised differently because she doesn't like her family. After this point Jeannette notices how god awful the house is and she tries to paint it to make it look prettier. She leaves the paint can outside when she was half done and the next morning she woke up to go continue but when she opened the can and it was frozen solid. Jeanette couldn't continue painting the porch and now it was half yellow and half grey. Jeannette continues to say how poor Welch is especially her family. Jeannette says that her family is the poorest in Welch because Rose-Mary wouldn't except any charity or food stamps because she says they can take care on their own. It's almost funny that Rose-Mary would say this because you've seen through out the book that they can't take care on their own. Jeannette also describes Welch as the most violent place they've ever lived. Jeannette, Lori and Brian would all fight the fights together and sum times win and sum times lose. They did have this one great battle against Ernie Goad, the town bully. Ernie was throwing rocks at the families house and calling them stinky for having a trash pit. Jeannette and Brian decided it was time to fight back so they built a catapult system to throw rocks directly at them while they were riding their bikes. Lets just say they won that battle and Ernie never bothered them again. That winter Lori  accidentially burns herself trying to light a kerosene lamp and she ends up getting blisters on her hips. Erma ends up dieing due to heavy drinking and Uncle Stanley burns down their house because he fell asleep while he had a lit cigarette in his mouth. Uncle Stanley and Ted survive and they relocate to a two bedroom apartment. Jeannette goes over to take a bath at Uncle Stanleys and Teds apartment but decides never to go back after Uncle Stanley tries to molest her. Jeannette and Brian discover a two-carat diamond ring under the porch that they later give to Rose-Mary. They urge her to sell it to buy food and pay for bills but she decides to keep it to boost her self-esteem. This is a another way that Rose-Mary is greedy and shows she doesn't care at all about her kids livelihoods. Jeannette urges Rose-Mary to leave Rex because she's seen other families and she's starting to see that her family isn't normal. Rose-Mary refuses to leave Rex and gets angry at Jeannette for losing faith in Rex. Jeannette urges Rose-Mary to get a job teaching so that the family can have money to eat and pay for electricty. You can see that Jeannette has taken over the parent role by parenting her own mother. She has told Rose-Mary to take control of her own life and do what's best for her family. Rose-Mary refuses to believe that that's whats best for her family. A child-welfare officer visits the family house and Jeannette answers the door. She tells him that the kids arn't being neglected and everything is alright at the household, which is clearly a lie but none the less she answers the questions and he leaves. Jeannette is fearful that the officer will come back and see that everything she said was a lie and that he'd split up her siblings. Rose-Mary starts teaching at Davy Elementary School right outside Welch and she begins to get a paycheck even though it's usually all gone by the end of the month, it still helps the family a bit. Jeannette is now in 7th grade and is forced to go through the trash after lunch to see if kids dropped food in them. Jeannette talks to Dinitia a bit but she soon finds out that she is pregneat and Dinitia drops out of highschool and she later is sent to jail for stabbing her mothers boyfriend. With little friends Jeannette now joins the schools newspaper, The Maroon Wave. This is where Jeannette's passion for journalism sparks and she also starts to discover that there is life beyond Welch. You can start to see that Lori and Jeannettes realtionship is all about reading books together. They talk about their favorite books and they continue on with their day. Rex comes home that night drunk and gashed on the arm and he asks Jeannette to stich him up. Jeanette does not want to do it but he reminds her that he wouldn't feel a thing and he'd walk her through it. She does the bare minimum because she doesn't want to hurt Rex anymore and he tells her what a good job she has done. That summer Rose-Mary goes off to renew her teaching license so she leaves Jeannette in charge of $200 for the two months she'd be gone. Lori leaves to go to a government-run camp so it's only Brian, Jeannette, Maureen and Rex that lives at home for the summer. Then again I should just say Brian and Jeannette because Maureen is always at a friends house and Rex is always gone for days. Rex finally comes home and asks Jeannnette for money but Jeannette has a budget and she wants to stick to it. Rex tells her he'd give it back to her with interest, Jeannette hands over the cash to Rex. The next day Rex tells Jeannette to come with him on an adventure. Jeannette goes with Rex and they stop at a bar. Rex and Jeannette go into the bar and they start playing pool. Soon after Rex starts playing pool against a guy whos so drunk he's bound to lose. After losing 80$ to Rex the guy asks Jeannette to come upstairs with him to show her around, Jeanette hesitates and Rex tells her to go up. She goes up and he tries moves on her but Jeanette escapes. Jeannette gets her money back with interest and she ignores Rex the entire way home. Lori and Rose-Mary return home changed girls. Lori is determined to escape Welch after discovering what it's like to be treated normally. Rose-Mary has decided she doesn't want to be a teacher anymore, she just wants to be an artist the rest of her life. Jeannette tells her mom she can't quit being a teacher because they need the money. Rose-Mary tells Jeannette to go see Rex about her discipline for talking back. Once Jeannette goes and sees Rex downstairs, he takes off his belt and whips her with it. From that point on Jeannette decides to save money to escape Welch.  After two film-makers come to Welch to film sumthing they tell Lori all about New York. Lori tells Jeannette about New York and they decide they want to move their. Jeannette tells Lori about the escape Welch fund and Lori decides to contribute to make it one escape fund. Lori begins on her portfolio to apply for University in New York but anything she makes Rex seems to destroy it in sum odd way. Lori and Jeannette find out later that Rex found their savings and he took it all. Lori at that point promised herself that she'd never talk to Rex ever again. That summer a woman in Iowa offers Jeannette a babysitting job and a bus ticket back to Welch. Jeannette asks if Lori could take her place and at the end of the time she could have a bus ticket to New York. Everyone agrees and Lori is sent off the next day, Lori does not say goodbye to Rex. After Lori leaves Jeannette becomes increasingly involved with the schools newspaper. She is now promoted to Editor-in-cheif by her junior year of high school. Chuck Yeager visited Welch High School and Jeannette got to interview him for the schools newspaper. After the interview Jeannette was seen as a celebrity in the school. After Jeannette graduates she wants to move to New York like Lori did. Rex tries to convince Jeannette to stay in Welch, he promises he'd start on the glass castle but Jeannette knows better and she'd walk to New York if she'd have to. Jeannette wakes up early with the family and they walk to the bus station. Rex gives Jeannette his favorite pocketknife for protection and she thanks him. They say their goodbyes and she gets on the bus and she starts her journey towards New York. Jeannette arrives in New York and she meets Evan one of Lori's friends. He takes her to Zum Zum, A German restaurant where Lori is working as a bartender. Jeannette goes exploring in New York while she waits for Lori to finish her shift. After work Lori, takes Jeannette to Evangeline where Lori lives in a female hostel. Jeannette gets a job at a fast food place a few weeks later moving to New York. That summer the girls decide to move to the South Bronx where they will share rent. Jeannette decides to enroll into public school where she does an internship for The Phoenix newspaper. After a bit of time Jeannette gets an offer from The Phoenix for a full time position, Jeannette accepts and she quits her job at the fast food place. Brian soon writes to Jeanette and Lori about the bad conditions in Welch he has to endure. Jeannette and Lori hatch a plan for Brian and Maureen to move to New York like they did. Jeannette applies for Barnard College and she gets accepted for journalism.

Barnard College, NY

3 years later Rose-Mary and Rex move to New York declaring that they have offically moved to New York to see their kids and to become a family once more. Rose-Mary and Rex are still up to their old ways living in run down places and sketchy run-down buildings. The Walls kids will have none of it and they continue living their normal lives. After getting kicked out of two apartments Rex and Rose-Mary move in with lori. After a couple of months Lori gets sick and tired of her parents antics and she kicks them out. Rose-Mary and Rex live in their van for sumtime until it gets towed and they become homeless. Jeannette feels bad and wants to help them but Lori tells her that homelessness is an adventure. They do well until Rex is sent to the hospial with tuberculosis. Jeannette goes to visit and they talk. Rex gets better and he's able to stay sober for 6 months. This was enough time for Rex to find a job up down as maintenance guy for an apartment complex. At this time Rose-Mary is all by herself but she eventually gets Rex to return to his old self and by her side. Rex returns at christmas to celebrate with his family, everyone attends Christmas at Loris. Jeannette admits to her father that she's $1000 short her tuition and she's afraid she's going to have to drop out of Barnard. Rex refuses and he shows up the next day with $950 and a fur coat that she trade in for 50$. Jeannette is shocked by this and tells Rex that he needs it more than she does. Rex tells her no child of him is dropping out of college and he wants her to finish. She takes the money and she continues her college degree at Barnard. After graduating from Barnard Jeannette moves into an apartment at Park Avenur with her boyfriend Eric who's she's been seeing for a long time. Jeannette also starts working full time at a famous magazine that has been famous in New York for a while. After four years of living with Eric, Jeannette and him decide to get married. Uncle Jim dies and Rose-Mary comes to Jeannette asking if she can ask Eric for a million dollars too buy back Uncle Jims part of Texas Land that he sold. She tells Jeannette that the land has been in her family for generation and she must keep it in the family. Jeannette wonders why her mom wouldn't sell her million dollar property to feed and take care of her family over the past decade. At this point I'm thinking this story could have been avoided if Rose-Mary just sold her Texas land. Why the heck would a mother want to keep her children suffering over the years just to keep a peice of land in her family, doesn't make sense to me. Loi becomes a freelance artist and Brian becomes a police officer. Maureen graduated highschool in New York but she started living with her parents which caused her to inherit bad habits that Rose-Mary and Rex exibit. Maureen starts drinking heavily like her father and doing drugs. When Jeannette tries to send her to rehab Maureen flees to Californa without saying goodbye to her family. That momment changes the family, they don't get together as they used to and everyone seems to go their seperate ways. Brian moves to Long Island with his wife and daughter. One day Rex calls Jeannette and asks her to come visit him and Rose-Mary because he has sumthing really important to tell her. She complies and she heads over to their apartment on the Lower East Side of town. Rex tells Jeannette he's dying and he only has about 2 weeks left to live. Jeannette can't believe this is actually happening because even with everything they have gone through she still loves her dad to peices. Two weeks later Rex has a heart attack and spends his last few days hooked up to a breathing machine. After the death of her dad Jeannette becomes restless  and she develops the jitter bug. She figures out that where she is now and where she wants to be is completly different so a year later she divorces Eric. Jeannette moves to an apartment on the West Side and looks forward to seeing Venus when the sky is clear enough. It has been Five years since Rex's death so the Walls family decides to reunite for a Thanksgiving celebration. Jeannette, and her new husband John, host the thanksgiving meal at their country home. Brian, who has also separated from his first marriage, greets them at the house with his daughter Veronica. Rose Mary brings the news that she and the squatters are finally being permitted to purchase their apartments for only $1 apiece and announces that she must return for a board meeting regarding the matter. The family drinks a toast to Rex Walls in remembrance of the man with whom "life was never boring."


THE END

.......FINALLY