Part Four: Why I Believed It

My father is Major General Arturo Serrano, United States Army, retired.

He is seventy-four.

He came out of Fort Bliss in 1974 as a second lieutenant and he retired in 2011 with two stars and a wall, and he is the most disciplined human being I have ever been related to.

I called him at eleven on the Monday morning and told him our granddaughter was dead and that I had not been allowed to see her and that there was going to be a cremation on Wednesday.

And my father said: “Valerie.