Questioning looks, dirty looks and contemptuous babbling were all too usual for Ruth McBride as she walked down the street with her entourage of children. James McBribe, one of a dozen children born from his two elopements, was often ashamed as well as scared. They had to prolong the worst racial nicknames. Her mother, who was white, argued unattended: "Every time she left the house with us she entered a kind of mental zone in which her attention span did not go beyond that of the five children who followed her," McBride later wrote, "My mother had absolutely no interest in a world that seemed incredulously stirred by our presence The observations and glances we heard as we walked through the world went over our heads and the memories of her son became the basis of “The color of water.” There is a great presence of God in the work and the strength of spirit that he transmits unconditionally, especially to Ruth. Although Ruth's power often overcame her circadian problems, she did more regularly relied on God for her strength. Ruth was a Jewish girl from Europe who came to ...