Willem’s mother was a Danish immigrant. She and Willem’s father worked on a ranch in rural Wyoming all Willem’s life. She died before the novel’s present day, when Willem was still in college. Willem’s parents treated him well, but they had a hard life and this made them rather aloof, pragmatic, and unfeeling. All but two of their children (Willem and his older brother, Hemming) died in childhood, and Hemming was born with a severe form of cerebral palsy which left him confined to a wheelchair, nonverbal, and unable to care for himself. Willem always hated how his parents treated Hemming as a responsibility for them to deal with rather than a child they loved. Willem cuts off contact with his parents following Hemming’s death. After they die, he realizes how much they loved him, even if they couldn’t show it.