High Ridge
High Ridge is a women's shelter and halfway house operated by WomanCare, located on a former apple orchard property near the Newport town line outside Derry. It serves as a safe haven for battered women and their children, offering counseling, communal living, and a supportive environment for survivors of domestic abuse. The shelter becomes a central location in the narrative when it is violently attacked by anti-abortion extremists led by Charlie Pickering, resulting in the deaths of two staff members and a desperate rescue of the trapped women and children by Ralph Roberts and Lois Chasse.
Location and Purpose
High Ridge is situated on what was once Barrett's Orchards, a property Ralph Roberts and his late wife Carolyn used to visit every fall to pick apples and buy cider. The shelter occupies a large white farmhouse at the end of a long dirt road, commanding a lovely view toward the dim blue mountains to the west. The house is at least seventy years old, with three storeys, two wings, and a long porch running the length of the building. The property includes a garden, an orchard, and a cider-press shed that served as a garage. The shelter's location is deliberately kept discreet; men are not told its exact whereabouts, and residents are asked to stay out of contact with everyone for the first few days after arrival. Helen Deepneau describes it as a kind of halfway house, not a shelter, where she can have her daughter Natalie with her. The rules of the house include a period of no phone or letter contact for new arrivals.
Life at High Ridge
Helen Deepneau moves to High Ridge after her husband Ed beats her severely for signing a petition to bring Susan Day to Derry. In a letter to Ralph, she describes the relief of discovering other women who have endured similar experiences, realizing she is not alone. The daily routine includes assigned chores such as working in the garden, helping to repaint an equipment shed, and washing storm windows with vinegar and water. The shelter provides group therapy sessions where women sit in a circle and talk through their trauma, using up boxes of Kleenex an hour. Helen finds the therapy helpful, learning to see things plainly and recognizing that the man she married has been replaced by a dangerous paranoid. She also learns that she has a right to do what is right for herself and her daughter. The shelter has at least six children Nat's age for her to play with. Gretchen Tillbury, a family-abuse counselor from WomanCare, is the staff member who first visits Helen in the hospital and later coordinates the shelter's operations.
The Attack on High Ridge
On the morning of Friday, October 8, 1993, High Ridge is attacked by a group of anti-abortion extremists. Charlie Pickering, Frank Felton, and Sandra McKay drive an old brown Cadillac with pro-life bumper stickers around to the back of the house, pretending to belong there. They are dressed in army clothes and carrying guns. The women inside, who had been preparing breakfast and getting ready for Susan Day's speech that evening, initially think it is a joke. Gretchen Tillbury tells them to get downstairs as quickly as possible and goes into the parlor to call the police. Pickering and his associates shoot and kill Gretchen Tillbury and a pregnant woman named Merrilee at point-blank range in the parlor. The attackers then set the house on fire using Molotov cocktails. The women and children trapped in the cellar face death by fire, smoke inhalation, or suffocation. The cellar bulkhead door has been locked from the outside by Sandra McKay, who put the lock in her pocket.
The Rescue
Ralph Roberts and Lois Chasse arrive at High Ridge as police cars race past them. They find the house in flames, with the south wing already burning and the porch catching fire. Ralph sees the dead bodies of Gretchen Tillbury and Merrilee in the parlor, their heads shot at close range. He and Lois, operating on a higher level of perception, pass through the burning house unseen. Ralph subdues Charlie Pickering in a therapy room, and Lois breaks the lock on the cellar bulkhead door using her mental powers. They lead the eighteen to twenty trapped women and children, including Helen and Natalie Deepneau, to safety through the back of the house. A little boy named Patrick Danville, who had been in the cellar with his mother, later tells his mother that angels came to save them. The attack results in the deaths of Gretchen Tillbury, Merrilee, and several of the attackers, including Frank Felton and Sandra McKay. Charlie Pickering is left catatonic after Ralph's intervention. The house is completely destroyed by the fire.
Aftermath and Significance
The attack on High Ridge galvanizes the pro-choice movement in Derry. Despite the violence and deaths, the rally and Susan Day's speech at the Civic Center are not cancelled. Helen Deepneau, furious at the suggestion of cancellation, declares that if they stop now, the attackers win. The shelter's destruction and the deaths of its staff become a rallying cry, and the event draws national media attention, including coverage by Connie Chung. The attack is a direct consequence of Ed Deepneau's influence on the extremist fringe of the anti-abortion movement, and it sets the stage for the final confrontation at the Civic Center that evening. High Ridge, as a place of healing and refuge, is transformed into a symbol of the violence and hatred that the abortion debate has unleashed in Derry.
