Fallen Angels. 30, Jane at Airport, Season Finale

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Jane quietly slipped out of the ballroom less than an hour after the weekend fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago began.

She booked a Friday night red-eye out of Palm Beach and called Dick from the boarding area.

She had reported to work at the White House four years earlier, a prodigy at messaging who competed fiercely for visibility. Mid-sized fictions and full-blown conspiracy theories became her thing.

But without a paycheck and the energy of the group – and with too much time on her hands – Jane started to have doubts.

In that ballroom at Mar-a-Lago, watching donors contribute millions to overturn the certified election of an American president, something happened.

“You’re coming home two days early.” Dick noted.

“Do you believe in epiphanies, Dick?” Jane asked.

“I think so.”

“What about second chances?” she added.

“As many as you need.” he said.

“They’re boarding my flight. Can you pick me up at 3:15?”

“Text me from the vestibule when you get there.” he said. “How about we drive over to the shore and wait for the sun to come up?”

“Bring my hoodie, will you?” she answered.

 

Follow the fate of the Fallen Angels from the first episode.

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Phyllis Holton

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Phyllis Holton was born during the pandemic of a century ago .And then only a decade later, she and her neighbors were plunged into the Great Depression.

She was just old enough to understand what it meant to her family’s hatchery and to the farmers it served. She recalls the converted incubator she used as a bedroom. She watched her nation respond to mass deprivation.

Her family moved frequently until she convinced her father to put down roots in Antioch, Illinois. She recounts how the two of them caught a glimpse of Lindbergh flying overhead.

The Second World War came and Phyllis put her clerical skills to work for the Navy. The recent college graduate also answered the call to fill in for public-school teachers who went off to war.

The untested novice taught several grades in a single classroom. She was a veteran teacher by the time Brown V. Board of Education promised equal opportunity for all children.

Few people have a sharper first-hand understanding of the events that have brought our country to where we are today.

Along with her daughter Anne and her son David, she contracted COVID-19. All three are well on the road to recovery.

At 101 years of age, my friend Phyllis is heartened to know that safe, effective vaccines have arrived, that the second impeachment of our forty-fifth president is underway, and that both Anne and David are close by her side.

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