“The old farmer gets along better with that handsome Jewish boy better than he does with his own children,” Amber remarked. Turning the page on the glam magazine, she noted it was a mystery that two people so different felt comfortable in each other’s company. “The hog farmer reminds me of my grandfather,” I told her. “Willy is salt of the earth, an honest and humble man. He gives the impression that he’s kind of slow, but he has loads of common sense. There won’t be many like him left around these parts, not the way farming is going lately.” Nodding in agreement, she added that Jesus is always by the side of the struggling farmer and working man.
Molded by conservative Lutheran values and hard work on the family farm, Willy’s stoic demeanor was similar to my father’s. Whereas luck knocke
