If you lived in Mississippi in the turbulent 50s, life might seem wild and opaque—like the mighty Mississippi river that carved out deep and shallow channels, eroding the soil and littering the coastline with both natural and human remains. When we think back on our lives, there are mileposts—singular events that shape us—discoveries and enlightenments that mold us into who we become. For Mary Catherine, her summer of thirteen was that time. There was devastation in the physical flood, sisterhood born in the torrent of integration, love born in a soft, misty rain, and the hollow emptiness of death. She lived a lifetime of the heart in 1955.