At Last She Stood: Chapters 26–33

At Tala, people die of starvation and malnutrition.

Although the patients at Tala are segregated from the rest of society and aren’t allowed to leave, Joey is visited by her Jesuit friends.

“Many are the times I feel that it is truly an imposition to ask even my own friends to venture out here into this no-man’s land, but my little girl’s heart always wins out by the thought that this is what friends are for: that I may turn to them in times of stress, that I may unburden to them the weight of the cross that lies heavy at times in my heart.”

When her husband and daughter visit, she puts on a cheerful demeanor, even when she’s desperately ill.

“There, with her, are people who need charity and she never lets a chance to alleviate their suffering go past her. The children, in particular, look up to her.”

Although Dr. Eloesser never shifts specialties, he soon joins the international cohort of Joey’s supporters, which seems to grow with each passing month.

General Moore reads a citation, then presents Joey with the Medal of Freedom with Silver Palm, a commendation given by President Harry S. Truman to honor civilians who demonstrated incredible courage during the war....Archbishop Spellman has a medal for Joey too—the eponymous Spellman Medal, given to those who show great “Christian fortitude and concern for fellow sufferers.”

John Early, a veteran of the Spanish-American War, arrived at Carville in 1918, when patients were treated as prisoners and pariahs rather than people who needed medical care.

Joey Guerrero doesn’t just bring a small bag of belongings to Carville—she also brings unprecedented celebrity.

Not only is she passionate, intelligent, and friendly, she is an unequivocal war hero. When Time runs an article about Joey’s arrival in Louisiana, more than four thousand letters flood the offices of Carville to celebrate her arrival.

“When will we outgrow such maudlin sentimentality?”

He also notes that in the fifty-four years that Carville has been in operation, not a single employee has ever contracted Hansen’s disease, despite their repeated exposure to patients like Joey, and authorities are convinced that the average adult, even in endemic areas, has natural immunity.

After contentious debates in Congress, these segregationists abandoned their party and created one of their own, called “Dixiecrats.”

As the Democrats continued to support integration and civil rights, Dixiecrats and other segregationists abandoned the party and joined the Republicans instead.

Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the American government forcibly removed 120,000 Japanese Americans from their homes and incarcerated them in internment camps.