Graham said he would look into it privately.
Ruth stood and asked whether his company had ever verified that death notices matched hospital discharge records before selling family histories.
Graham looked directly at me.
“Some alleged discrepancies are being promoted by people with personal grievances,” he said.
Ruth did not sit down.
“My daughter is alive,” she answered.
“You have seen the laboratory evidence.”
The room became quiet enough to hear the ventilation system.
Graham said he could not discuss private matters in public.
Ruth replied that she was discussing her own.
An organizer asked everyone to remain respectful, and the meeting continued without shouting.
Afterward, Graham approached me in the hallway.
His smile was gone.
“You don’t understand what happens when these files are released,” he said.
“Then explain it to the auditor,” I replied.
He asked whether I thought my mother had been innocent in the placement.
The question was designed to wound, and it worked.
I said my mother’s actions would be judged by evidence, not insinuation.
Ruth came to stand beside me.
Graham looked at both of us, then walked away without another word.
Outside, Ruth admitted that she was shaking.
I was too.
We sat in my car until the cold air stopped feeling like a threat.
The audit began with a court-authorized inventory at the secondary records facility.
The custodian and independent examiners documented each box before removing any material for inspection.
Felicia identified the shelves from her work inventory but did not touch the records herself.
Dana explained that this careful process protected everyone, including the families whose information might be present.
A sealed box labeled Room Seventeen held the original Harbor Bridge transfer ledger.
Its pages were brittle, and the ink had faded to brown.
The examiner used a cradle and protective sheets to photograph each entry without forcing the binding flat.
The B-17 entry included a date, vehicle number, and receipt reference.
The vehicle number matched a route in Lionel Cross’s surviving transport ledger.
The route did not lead to the hospital named in the clinic’s death notice.
It led to Lantern House’s temporary placement office.
The entry listed one living infant in stable condition and a receiving adult initialed E.P.
I felt relief at seeing Evelyn’s initials, followed by grief that she had carried this uncertainty alone.
The audit also found a duplicate form marked canceled, with the death designation entered in a different hand.
The examiner would not identify the writer without adequate comparisons.
