Fortunately the judge was very sympathetic to our plight and lit into the defendant’s lawyer after the evidence was presented. It was more than a moral victory ,and allowed us to break our lease and seek a home in the Northampton area. After weeks of searching we found a nineteenth century house on the commons in Florence, Massachusetts. It was a charming house but needed a great deal of love and attention. The street had been part of the underground railroad and though it was sealed there was a tunnel in our basement that ran underground to our neighbors home. Northampton was one of the centers of the Underground Railroad and at one point Sojourner Truth lived on the street. Slaves would be hidden and at night would go to the next home and then get into canoes and take the Mill River to Deerfield. There they would literally walk for days until they arrived in Canada.

By now John was a trooper as far as the cold, and was used to sleeping with his hat on. The house was so drafty when we bought it that you could not light a candle in the dining room without the wind blowing it out. Despite the limitations it was a wonderful home and for months we began the process of restoring it. Elaine was insistent that even though she was pregnant we had to have the house in good shape by the christening of the new baby. The chestnut staircase had about fifteen coats of oil based paint on it and we were using heavy solvents to get to the base wood. Like all the Murray women Elaine could work well beyond when “the cows came home” One night after a full day’s work and hours on the staircase I went to bed at midnight but Elaine kept right on trucking. Sound asleep I was felt a hand on my shoulder and Elaine said ‘the staircase is on fire. What had happened was that there was a chemical reaction between the chemicals and the paint. Fortunately we were able to put out the smoke and finally both of us went to bed.