She went back to work the day after the funeral, but only for a few days to wrap up.
She left the ACLU after Thanksgiving and planned to start at the firm on the first of the year. Her father knew that even when she left the ACLU, she was liable to volunteer for something anytime they asked her to, if she thought it was important and they needed her. She was on the list of volunteers they could count on, and frequently did.
The senior partner of the firm that hired her was a Harvard graduate and a revolutionary in his own way. Jock Hayden was from a wealthy family in Boston, and had grown up with the Kennedys. His political positions were more extreme than theirs, but he was an ardent supporter, and he liked Meredith’s CV as soon as he saw it. She was right up his alley and fit in perfectly, and she’d been part of some very important demonstrations: Greensboro, the Freedom Riders, and Mississippi, and a number of smaller ones in border states. Her arrest record didn’t bother him, it was a badge of honor, and he was impressed that her father was a federal judge and her grandfather a justice of the Supreme Court.
The week after Thanksgiving, she went to Washington to check on her grandfather since he had gone back to work. She told him about the new job, and he approved, but she was distressed to find him seeming frail and looking tired since her grandmother’s death. It was still recent, but he seemed to be floundering without her. Although he had always been the stronger of the two, he had counted on her to keep him organized and on track. She had been his silent cheering team for the sixty years that they were married. He knew he always had her approval and support, whatever he did.
Meredith was upset to see him looking disheveled. His tie was slightly askew, and his collar was sticking up, his hair not as neatly brushed as usual. He had talked about retiring once in a while in the past two years, but was still brilliant and sharp. But understandably, he seemed sad now, and the fire had dimmed in his eyes. He was turning eighty-one on his next birthday, and was the second oldest justice on the Supreme Court. Although justices were appointed for life, the oldest was planning to retire in June and had just announced it.
But he perked up when talking to Merrie about her new job. He liked the sound of the law firm she had signed on with, although he didn’t know them.
“I’m glad you didn’t let your father talk you into joining the firm.” It had been her grandfather’s firm once too, but not since his first judicial appointment, and he felt no bond with it anymore. He considered it Robert’s firm now, although he had started it himself. And they had a competent managing partner. “You would have been wasted there,” he said of the family firm. “I can’t see you ever doing tax law and estate planning.” He smiled at her, and she admitted that neither could she. They both laughed at the thought.
“I think Dad’s feelings were hurt, but I would have hated it, and they would have hated me. I’m glad I held out for the offer I got.”
“You would have been a huge pain in their ass.” Her grandfather guffawed and looked more like himself, and she laughed. “Although it might have done them some good. Your father gets more conservative every year,” he said, looking puzzled. “You’d think he’d mellow with age, but it’s just the opposite.” Her grandfather got more liberal and modern in his thinking year by year. He was innovative and creative, always wanting to stretch the envelope further and move forward with the times. It was a particular talent to remain that open-minded, and she hoped that she would be that way too at his age. He was her hero, and always had been, and a remarkable man. A true legend.
“I can’t talk to him about Vietnam anymore,” she admitted. “He’s such a rabid hawk, we just get into arguments. He can’t see any other point of view, or where they’re headed. They keep sending more troops there, and I don’t care what they call them, we’re in for a real war,” she said seriously, and Bill nodded.
“I completely agree with you. I said the same thing about World War II, while Roosevelt was promising everyone we’d never get into it, and Hitler was running amok all over Europe. Sooner or later, you have to fight back whether you want to or not. People say Vietnam is not our fight, which is true in theory, but if they’re sending our boys there, we’ll have to support them, or they’ll be slaughtered.” She nodded agreement, and after lunch, she walked him back to his chambers. He seemed more cheerful after her visit, and she was glad she’d come. He was going to spend Christmas with them, and it would do him good to be with the family after his wife’s recent death.
* * *
—
When her grandfather got to New York for the holidays, Meredith spent a lot of time with him, and Alex talked to him about college. He was going to apply to Harvard in the fall as his first choice, and his grandfather told him he better keep his grades up. He was applying to Princeton and Yale too, and some backup schools. But he had a good shot at Harvard, although his school performance had sometimes been erratic, with occasional dips when he got distracted by other things, usually sports or girls, and lately more the latter. He was a good-looking boy, and girls were crazy about him.
After the holidays, Claudia startled Meredith by telling her that she and Thaddeus were going to get married. After four years together, they had decided that they wanted to have children. Her youngest sister had just gotten married in December, to a Reform rabbi, in a small ceremony. She didn’t want a big wedding, after her other sister’s major event. And after the second wedding, she and Thaddeus had talked about it and made the decision. She hadn’t told her parents yet, but was going to soon. They weren’t in a hurry and were talking about getting married in May or June. She was twenty-eight years old, and it felt like the right time. Meredith was happy for her, but was afraid it might change things between them, especially if she and Thaddeus had children, but Claudia promised that her being married or having babies wouldn’t change anything. They were best friends forever.
Once she got pregnant, they were going to look for a house in the country. She was planning to quit her job when they had kids, write freelance articles from home, and work on her books. Thaddeus worked from home too, on his documentaries. She didn’t intend to stop writing, she saw it as her lifetime career. Quitting her job to write and have children felt like a major life decision to Meredith, even before they’d done it. Change was in the air. It was hard to imagine Claudia living in the country, married, and having babies. They both loved their jobs and living in the city.
And as though to underline it further, she got an announcement from Ted that they had just had twin boys. So now he had four children, and he and Claudia were the same age. He had sent a moving notice too, with a note on it, that with the arrival of the twins, they had to move to a bigger house, still in Greenwich, and he was still working for his father. “Trying to create my own baseball team while working at the bank. If all else fails, we can become a circus act. Greetings from your most conservative friend, father of four, living in the ’burbs. Love you, Ted.”
He didn’t say if he was happy or not, but that was beside the point. He had gone the most traditional possible route, and with a wife and four children, he couldn’t afford to stray off that path. She hoped his income was growing as fast as his family. It was a responsibility she couldn’t imagine taking on, with four kids to feed and house, and educate one day. But his family could afford it, luckily for him, as long as he continued working for them. There was no deviation possible there. She hadn’t talked to him in a year and never saw him, but their baby announcements kept them in touch. She wondered if he’d have more or if this was it.
She wondered how many children Claudia would have too. When they’d met she’d always said she didn’t want to have children, in case the world went crazy again one day and the same thing happened. She didn’t want to risk exposing a child to a holocaust like the one she’d lived through, but in her years with Thaddeus, her faith in the future seemed to have been restored, and he was wonderful to her.
/> And Meredith was loving her new job. It kept her busy, and they had given her a number of small cases right from the beginning, mostly women who’d been passed over for promotions or were being paid less than their male counterparts. A man who had been persecuted because he was Jewish, and a very bright college-educated black man who was discriminated against. Meredith felt respected and supported by her boss. The firm was small but busy, and she won her first case in court in May, for a Hispanic woman who was fired as a maid at a hotel. Her clients were mostly women, but some were men.
She was the maid of honor at Claudia’s wedding in May, at their Long Island home. It was beautiful and discreet, just the way the couple wanted. His parents had hoped they’d get married in L.A., but there was no question of it. Claudia had reported that the meeting between the parents had gone surprisingly well. His father was undeniably in show business, but they were loving parents and respectable people, and the two mothers got along. The Steinbergs had come to respect Thaddeus’s talent and work and loved how good he was to Claudia. At the wedding the couple was married by Claudia’s brother-in-law under a canopy of flowers. Both the bride and groom cried when they exchanged their vows, and cheers went up when the groom broke the glass and they were man and wife.
The ceremony was very traditional, and everyone was happy for them. It was the culmination of eighteen years of the Steinbergs’ love for Claudia, after they rescued her from the horrors of what she’d suffered in the war. They were wonderful parents and were happy to see her settle down with a good man, even if he was slightly different from what they’d hoped for her. But Thaddeus’s deep love for her was obvious, and she was marrying into a family that loved her too. One could only be happy for her, and Meredith was certain that she was going to be much happier and better cared for than she would ever have been with Seth, although she didn’t say it to Claudia, not wanting to raise old ghosts. He had totally faded from her life, and was a dim memory now, five years, almost to the day, from when he had broken her heart. She was ready for a good life now with the man she loved. The wedding had a joyous, ebullient feeling that touched them all. And Thaddeus’s father’s speech was so eloquent and moving, welcoming her into their family and honoring her, that it made everyone cry.
Thaddeus had wanted to take her to Paris for the honeymoon, but Claudia didn’t want to go to Europe, and they were going to Mexico instead. The assembled company waved them off in a shower of rose petals, as Meredith wiped the tears from her eyes. It had been everything a wedding should be, and everyone was happy for them and wished them well. Claudia had been a radiant bride, and Meredith knew she deserved it all. She was sure they would have an interesting and happy life.
They were still on their honeymoon when Meredith watched President Kennedy’s speech proposing the Civil Rights Act on the night of June 11. She got a call from one of her old ACLU coworkers early the next morning to tell her that civil rights activist Medgar Evers had been shot in the back and killed in Mississippi hours after the speech. The violence and tragedies were continuing. Meredith was deeply saddened by it when she went to work the next morning. They still had so far to go.
But Claudia’s good news raised her spirits. They were trying to get pregnant and started looking at houses after they got back from Mexico. They bought an old farm in Sharon, Connecticut, not too far from the city. And in July, Claudia told Merrie she was pregnant. She was ecstatic, and so was Meredith for her.
Meredith helped them move on Labor Day, and Claudia had already designated a guest room for her. She wanted Meredith to spend weekends with them, she said she had told Thaddeus that Meredith was part of the deal when they got married, and he’d laughed and said he had no objection to it, and considered her an additional sister-in-law.
After that, Meredith spent several weeks helping Alex with his college applications at night. He was growing into manhood, and was a truly great kid, with good values and a kind heart. He wasn’t quite as liberal as his sister, but he was light-years removed from his parents’ ultraconservative Republican politics. More than anything, he was worried about Vietnam.
“I don’t want to end up there, Merrie,” he told her with a terrified look.
“I don’t want you there either. Just make sure you keep your grades up.” They were not drafting men into the army for Vietnam, but it had been the subject of political discussion, and if they started to, young men Alex’s age, once he turned eighteen in a few months, were likely to be among the first to go. Meredith remained convinced that the war in Vietnam, whatever they called it, was a disaster waiting to happen, and she didn’t want her brother to become a victim of it.
They had already finished two of his applications before Thanksgiving, still had four to do before Christmas vacation, and Alex was grateful for her help. In one of his applications he had written an essay about his grandfather, which Meredith thought was a knockout and told him so. He was very proud of it, and wanted to use it as a school paper too.
He had left with it that morning, while Adelaide talked at breakfast about what she was making for Thanksgiving dinner. Meredith was meeting with a new client that day, a woman who had been fired from her job for being pregnant. She was in her office listening to what the woman had to say when the senior partner, Jock Hayden, came running into her office and shouted at her and her client. “You’ve got to come in my office….Kennedy has just been shot in Dallas!” He was scheduled to speak at a luncheon that day with the First Lady, and at first Meredith didn’t understand.
“What do you mean ‘shot’?” It made no sense as she and her client ran down the hall and pressed into the crowd watching the scene on Jock’s TV. They showed a photo of the president waving in the motorcade, with the First Lady next to him, another of the president hit by the shots seconds later and slumping over as Secret Service men ran toward them, leapt into the car, and all hell broke loose. The anchorman reporting it said the president’s condition was grave and they were waiting for news from spokesmen at Parkland Hospital in Dallas. Everyone in the room stared at each other, and many were crying. From the photos and the reports, the president had appeared so severely injured that there seemed to be no way he could have survived it. The entire world was watching their television sets by then. Business had come to a halt, classrooms had emptied, people were standing in the street watching televisions in stores. People around the world were crying and didn’t stop for many days.
The announcement of John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s death was made by Walter Cronkite on TV at 2:38 P.M. eastern time as the nation mourned him, joined by the entire world. Within hours, images of Mrs. Kennedy, now the president’s widow, in her blood-stained pink suit, accompanying the casket, were splashed all over the TV. Young people were crying, old people, foreigners, Americans. He had been the most beloved president America had ever known or shared with the world. He was the youngest president to hold the office, and he had a beautiful young wife and two small children. In three short years, he had barely had time to accomplish what he wanted to, but he had left his mark indelibly on important issues.
Meredith’s client grabbed her coat and bag and left crying. Her father adjourned his courtroom at the federal courthouse after making an announcement as soon as the bailiff told him what had happened. Adelaide sat in their living room watching TV and sobbing. Her mother huddled with her bridge partners as they cried, watching Mrs. Kennedy. The entire city and country had come to a standstill.
Not since the assassination of Abraham Lincoln had the nation been so shocked and devastated over a president. Everything about John Kennedy had been the stuff that won the hearts of all those who saw him, as husband, president, father, brother, son.
Meredith went home to her parents’ apartment after it was clear that the president had died, and she sat next to Addie, both of them crying, until Alex and her parents came home. And at 3:38 P.M. eastern time, they saw photos and heard Vice President Lynd
on Johnson sworn in on Air Force One with his wife and Mrs. Kennedy, still in the same blood-stained suit, beside him. It was the first time a female judge had sworn in a president. The only activity anyone engaged in for the next five days was to watch their television sets, to see the president lying in state in the Capitol rotunda, Mrs. Kennedy beneath a heavy black veil visiting her husband’s casket with her children beside her, images of mourners everywhere, the funeral, his three-year-old son saluting him, the riderless horse tethered behind as his casket was taken to Arlington Cemetery. Each image was more heart-wrenching than the last, and then the additional shock of a lone gunman, Jack Ruby, breaking from a crowd in a basement garage to kill the killer who had gunned down the president, with no reason or explanation known yet, but countless theories being explored. It was one more blow to a national psyche that had been stretched to its emotional limits for days.
Everyone was in deep mourning. The dream had ended all too quickly. For many, it was the death of hope, as President Johnson attempted to rally the nation’s spirits. It was a shocking experience for all, the world over. A week later, Americans were still subdued and struggling to understand what had happened, as citizens of other countries around the world sent messages of sympathy to the American people and the late president’s family. It was a moment in time and an event Meredith knew she would never forget and would be etched in her mind in its most minute detail forever, when Jock had run into her office to tell her the president had been shot, and the days that had come after. It was beyond unforgettable. Everything else, even in one’s own life, paled in comparison and seemed insignificant.
Thanksgiving was a mournful event after that, and even Christmas. Meredith’s grandfather was deeply shaken by the assassination of the president. He couldn’t imagine it happening in this country. The combination of losing his wife and the president’s murder had left him quieter than Meredith had ever seen him. He seemed suddenly smaller, and subdued.
The Good Fight Page 17