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Ph.D.
Her parents' bodies were never found. It was a terrible loss for Meredith, but they had taught her to be strong. She mourned them that summer, then returned to school in the fall to complete her doctorate as they would have wished her to do.
Marriage
Meredith had been married briefly, to a fellow ecologist whom she met at a Bioneers conference in San Francisco. Esteban, an agronomist and professor of plant genetics, was leading a workshop on Indigenous Agriculture. He was founder of the Andean Peasant Technology Project, an effort to preserve ancient crops and cultivation methods, and restore the profound spiritual teachings carried in the rural traditions.
Divorce
After a whirlwind courtship and honeymoon in Peru, where Esteban worked in the fields while Meredith poured over climactic statistics on her laptop, they separated amicably to carry on their work. Meredith returned to the States with the knowledge that the marriage was empty.
They divorced a year later.
Stressed to the Max
Meredith took a puff from the peace pipe. In the valley below farm buildings appeared small as toy houses. She opened her pack and pulled out a news clipping from the journal 'Ecology'. Smoothing it out, she skimmed the article. It was entitled 'Earth's Ecology Stressed to Max'. She had written it herself.