Lost

Jeannette's parents, Rose and Rex Walls

This is a passage from The Glass Castle:

"He told me I was his favorite child, but he made me promise not to tell Lori or Brian or Maureen. It was our secret. "I swear, honey, there are times when I think you're the only one around who still has faith in me," he said. "I don't know what I'd do if you ever lost it. "I told him that I would never lose faith in him. And I promised myself I never would."
The Glass Castle, page 79.

When reading, this particular quote struck me because I saw toward the future of the book, and couldn't help but think that this would only last so long. In the future, I could only see Rex Walls getting worse. This passage also stood out to me among many others because, to me, the faith the author had put in her father was beautiful and showed the love both persons felt toward each other. For this reason I always had mixed feelings toward Jeannette's father Rex. He clearly loved his family and wanted the best for them, I wanted the best for them. But there was nothing anyone could do when Rex quickly deteriorated into his drunken shell, and as this happened, there was nothing anyone could do as Jeannette struggled to hold that beautiful faith she had in her father, the faith she promised to never lose.