Messenger: Release From Debtor’s Prison Raises Holiday Spirits of Missouri Woman
It was early Christmas morning and the kids were poised to tear into their gifts.
I sat in my favorite chair, coffee in hand. It had a little extra shot of holiday cheer. Nat King Cole was singing in the background when the first “Merry Christmas” text popped up on my phone.
It wasn’t from one of my grown children in a faraway state — not my dad, nor any of my siblings.
No, the two-word holiday greeting came from Victoria Branson.
Just a couple of months earlier, the 48-year-old grandmother had been in a Missouri prison, facing a four-year sentence for the audacious crime of being too poor.