Stony The Road We Trod is a family saga spread across two volumes that are inextricably linked and essential reading to acquire an understanding of the joys, triumphs and struggles borne by the Grimke family. A former slave-holding family in Charleston, South Carolina, the Grimke lineage spans across race ethnicity, religion, and cultural norms. Greater than the usual fare of historical fiction, Stony The Road We Trod is the quintessential American story.  

On January 24, 2026, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old American intensive care nurse for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, was shot and killed by ICE Agents. In his final moments of life, he was helping a woman who had been pushed to the ground by ICE agents. His last words, “Are you okay?,” will forever echo in American history. He will be remembered.

We have been warned – repeatedly.  We are headed toward the self-destruction of humankind as a species. Indeed, all the other aerobic (oxygen consuming) species on Earth may also be in jeopardy. The latest threat to our species is the rapidly melting permafrost in the Arctic, and the rise there in lethal methane producing sinkholes.