Brett Torrance

According to what my father told my mom, he would have beaten her to death if Brett and Mike—they were my uncles—hadn’t pulled him away. When the doctor came, your great-grandfather was down on his knees with his own little medical kit, doing what he could. He said she fell downstairs.

Jack’s brother who intervenes in their father’s assault on their mother.

He could remember velvet summer nights, the house quiet, oldest brother Brett out with his girl, middle brother Mike studying something, Becky and their mother in the living room, watching something on the balky old TV; and he would sit in the hall dressed in a pajama singlet and nothing else, ostensibly playing with …

Eldest brother leaves mill job for Army four days after mother’s beating. Killed in Dong Ho province in 1965; Jack later cites him at antiwar rallies.