“I remember they came back to the Landing, and we were all there,” Porgy says. “So many people come, the Shakers, all of them come. Norma didn’t know what to do. I said, ‘Norma, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. You’ve got to be what your parents brought you up to be. You can’t be all of these things that people want you to be, and then deal with the hurt too.’ So many people come in—it’s fine to have a religion and a belief, but don’t push it down somebody else.” The accident “shattered our family,” Billy says.
“That was his life. That girl loved him . . . and Norma,” Porgy says. “It was like they tore their hearts out.”
“It’s the worst thing that ever happened to him,” says Adams.
If a silver lining followed Maureen’s passing, it was undoubtedly Tanu, a bright-eyed toddler with an infectious smile. Billy and Norma adopted the young boy through the Puyallup Tribe and Billy’s father named him. With no tribal office at the time, few adoption records existed. But there was new life in the home at Frank’s Landing.
