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Elise Turner
Luke Sheppard’s father, Latrice Sheppard’s husband, and the pastor of Upper Room. Unsurprisingly, the pastor is a deeply religious man, though he doesn’t stop his wife from paying for Nadia’s abortion when his son reveals that she is pregnant with his child. Still, Mr. Sheppard feels a strong sense of remorse for having helped Nadia get an abortion and thinks that the family “owes” the young woman for having put her in a sinful position. In an attempt to help Nadia, the pastor insists that his wife hire Nadia as a secretary—a proposition the first lady resists. Despite his wife’s hesitancy, Mr. Sheppard goes to Robert Turner’s house and tells him they’d like to hire Nadia for the summer. During this visit, Nadia momentarily senses that the pastor can sense the fact that she got an abortion. Years later, when Robert finally learns that the Sheppards paid for Nadia’s procedure, he storms into Upper Room and yells at John, calling him a “son of a bitch.” Mother Betty overhears this conversation and spreads the news throughout the church, effectively disgracing the pastor and forcing the church to close because the congregants start leaving one by one.
The Pastor (John Sheppard) Quotes in The Mothers
The The Mothers quotes below are all either spoken by The Pastor (John Sheppard) or refer to The Pastor (John Sheppard). For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter Three
Quotes
At her mother’s funeral, in the front pew, she’d felt pity radiating toward her, along with a quiet anger that everyone was too polite to express, though she’d felt its heat tickling the back of her neck. “Who is in a position to condemn? Only God,” the pastor had said, opening his eulogy. But the fact that he’d led with that scripture only meant that the congregation had already condemned her mother, or worse, that he felt her mother had done something deserving of condemnation. […]
How dare anyone at the church judge her mother? No one knew why she’d wanted to die. The worst part was that Upper Room’s judgment had made Nadia start to judge her mother too.
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Chapter Fourteen
Quotes
“You did this thing?” he said. “You did this thing behind my back?”
He’d refused to name her sin, which shamed her even more. So she’d told him the truth. How she’d secretly dated Luke, and discovered that she was pregnant, and how the Sheppards had given her the money for the abortion. Her father had listened silently, head bowed, wringing his hands, and when she finished, he sat there a moment longer before standing up and walking out of her room. He was in shock, and she didn’t understand why. Didn’t he know by now that you could never truly know another person? Hadn’t her mother taught them both that?
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The Pastor (John Sheppard) Quotes in The Mothers
The The Mothers quotes below are all either spoken by The Pastor (John Sheppard) or refer to The Pastor (John Sheppard). For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter Three
Quotes
At her mother’s funeral, in the front pew, she’d felt pity radiating toward her, along with a quiet anger that everyone was too polite to express, though she’d felt its heat tickling the back of her neck. “Who is in a position to condemn? Only God,” the pastor had said, opening his eulogy. But the fact that he’d led with that scripture only meant that the congregation had already condemned her mother, or worse, that he felt her mother had done something deserving of condemnation. […]
How dare anyone at the church judge her mother? No one knew why she’d wanted to die. The worst part was that Upper Room’s judgment had made Nadia start to judge her mother too.
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Chapter Fourteen
Quotes
“You did this thing?” he said. “You did this thing behind my back?”
He’d refused to name her sin, which shamed her even more. So she’d told him the truth. How she’d secretly dated Luke, and discovered that she was pregnant, and how the Sheppards had given her the money for the abortion. Her father had listened silently, head bowed, wringing his hands, and when she finished, he sat there a moment longer before standing up and walking out of her room. He was in shock, and she didn’t understand why. Didn’t he know by now that you could never truly know another person? Hadn’t her mother taught them both that?
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