Letters to Tom Yodi, July 1975

Dear Tom,

I hope that this letter finds you well, though how well can one be in such a place? I hope that you accept it from me. I hope that after all these years of silence you will listen to your grandfather again. I was there for you when nobody else was, but not when you needed me most, and for that I am truly sorry...Those were black days for us all but it was you who suffered most. The living suffer more than the dead, always, and I know that you blame yourself for those that died - Dan Yodi, and Cathy Lake. But the truth is not so simple. The truth has been kept from you and it falls upon me now to reveal to you what the truth is. I am your real father. You are not my grandson, but my son. You were conceived by Cathy Lake when she was but fourteen, and though I am ashamed of many things, of many of my actions, I know in my heart that you were conceived in love, not some old man's lust or a drunken moment of passion. I cannot explain the matter of a man's heart, or how love and shame can lead to such things as what has befallen this family, not here, not in a letter that will be read by censors and guards and the gatekeeprs of a prison. But perhaps, through my letters, you will come to understand, and one day, if you are ever released and if I still live, I will tell you how it was that an old man came to love a girl, your mother. What I can tell you now is that I could not stay, and that I left you with a man who was at the time an honest, hardworking soul who did love you as his own - my nephew Dan Yodi. This must come as a shock to you, so I will not say more until I hear back, if I hear back. I will wait Tom. I will wait for a letter and I will wait for your release. Twelve years is not such a long time...