Barely five feet tall and weighing no more than 100 pounds, Helen Viola Jackson sat on the edge of a bed in a private room of a nursing home, her tiny feet grazing the floor. Hanging on a wall, near a collection of birthday cards, was a photo of Jackson’s parents and one of her nine siblings—Helen, nearly 100, had outlived them all.
“My God, it’s hot as hell in here,” Pastor Nicholas Inman said as he entered the sparsely furnished room at Christmastime 2017. Jackson liked the heat on full blast and the curtains closed. The light hurt her eyes.
Still full of life despite physical challenges, the lifelong Missourian intended to plan her funeral with the pastor, whom she befriended after they first met in church three decades earlier in rural Marshfield. But on this afternoon, Jackson—almost a member of the Inman family now—also planned to reveal an 81-year-old secret.
“I was married,” she told the 35-year-old pastor. “What do you mean you were married?” replied the incredulous Inman, who thought Helen had been single her entire life. Jackson was no jokester, so this must be serious
Jackson paused, then revealed even more stunning information. “Well, he was in the Union Army,” she
