We are family, I've got all my sisters with me

The slogan 'We are family, I've got all my sisters with me' appears as a chalked inscription on a blackboard in the group therapy room of High Ridge, the women's shelter that is attacked by anti-abortion extremists. The phrase encapsulates the ethos of solidarity among the battered women who seek refuge there, and its violent desecration during the assault underscores the stakes of the novel's conflict between communal care and destructive fanaticism.

Location and Context

The slogan is written in capital letters on a blackboard in a room that had once been a study but was converted into a group therapy space. The room is furnished with a dozen or so folding chairs arranged in a circle, and its walls are hung with plaques bearing affirmations such as 'I CANNOT EXPECT RESPECT FROM ANYONE ELSE UNTIL I RESPECT MYSELF.' The blackboard stands at one end of the room, and the slogan is the most prominent feature on it. This room is part of High Ridge, a white farmhouse on a hill near the Newport town line that serves as a shelter for abused women and their children. The shelter is operated by WomanCare, the women's resource center that also runs an abortion clinic in Derry.

The Slogan's Thematic Significance

The phrase 'We are family, I've got all my sisters with me' expresses the core value of High Ridge: mutual support among women who have survived domestic violence. It echoes the language of sisterhood and chosen family that the shelter's counselors, like Gretchen Tillbury, use to help residents rebuild their lives. The slogan appears in a room where group therapy sessions are held, suggesting that the healing process depends on shared experience and collective strength. The inscription is a deliberate counterpoint to the isolation and shame that abusers like Ed Deepneau impose on their victims.

The Slogan's Violation

The slogan's hopeful message is brutally contradicted when Charlie Pickering, a member of the extremist anti-abortion group The Friends of Life, attacks High Ridge. Pickering and his accomplices, Frank Felton and Sandra McKay, storm the shelter, shooting two women—Gretchen Tillbury and a pregnant resident named Merrilee—at point-blank range in the parlor next to the therapy room. The attack forces the remaining women and children to flee into the cellar, where they are trapped by a locked bulkhead door as the building catches fire. The chalked words 'We are family, I've got all my sisters with me' thus become a bitter irony: the very space that proclaimed sisterhood is invaded by men who see the women as enemies to be exterminated.

Narrative Role

Ralph Roberts and Lois Chasse, who have developed the ability to perceive auras and move between levels of reality, witness the aftermath of the attack when they enter the therapy room. They find Pickering crouched by the east-facing window, firing an automatic weapon at the police outside. The blackboard with its slogan stands behind him, a silent witness to the violence. Ralph subdues Pickering by striking him with a gasoline-filled wine bottle from the attacker's own duffel bag, and Lois later helps the trapped women escape through the bulkhead. The slogan thus marks the site of both the attack's horror and the rescue that follows, serving as a reminder of what was nearly lost and what was ultimately saved.