During the civil war, the Miller's owned several farms in northern Georgia and southern South Carolina. They were preparing to ship a small herd of breeding bulls from one farm to another when two of the bulls died mysteriously. Before they could get to bottom of the mystery, Sherman came through and burned the farm, killing the entire herd of breeding bulls. Later the Miller's found out that the two bulls had died of anthrax. If they had taken the infected bulls to the other farms their entire herd would have had to be destroyed. So while Sherman destroyed most Savannah farmers, he actually saved the Millers. The story of the breeding bulls was not an isolated event in the Miller tradition. The older generations could sit on their porches for hours, rocking and enjoying the cool of the evening, while recounting tale after tale of the most unbelievable stories of good fortune.
George Oglethorpe Miller lived a comfortable life in the bosom of his well-connected and well-heeled family. He went to prep school, college and eventually on to law school. Upon graduating from law school he became engaged to his high school sweetheart, Sharon Mitchell Decatur who was also from an old money Savannah family. However, the Decaturs were not blessed. Some even said that they were cursed.
The Decaturs were not cursed by bad luck in the way that the Millers were blessed with good luck. It wasn't that simple. There were rumors of madness in the Decatur family. A hundred and fifty years ago the jargon of psychiatric illness was less refined. If you behaved oddly but could still relate to normal people you were eccentric. If you behaved oddly and could not relate to normal people you were mad. Most people had some sort of an oddly behaving relative somewhere in their family tree so derangements were taken in stride just like hooping cough or measles. It was only the frequent repetition of such occurrences that would eventually cause people to talk.
At least once in each generation, someone in the Decatur family tree would start acting strangely. First, it would be hard to point to any specific behaviors. They would begin collecting worthless objects and store them in an out of the way drawer or chest. Then they would start collecting talismans claiming that the protective charms warded off some unknown force or spirit that had been plaguing them. As the madness progressed, more and more bizarre behaviors would manifest. Eventually, the unfortunate family member would go over the edge and commit a crime of some kind, usually a murder. The murder victim was often mistaken for a manifestation of the spirits that had been harassing the woeful Decatur. It was almost as though the curse of the Decaturs was a double whammy. First, there was the madness in the family. Second, there was the inability to tell who would be stricken until something horrible had happened. It was the second curse that made the Decaturs a most uneasy lot.
But George Oglethorpe Miller was not one to worry about curses - especially since he had the Miller guardian angel looking over him. In fact he didn't really worry about much of anything. Sharon Mitchell Decatur was petit and muscular in a wiry athletic way. Her very dark brown hair matched her very dark brown eyes both providing an eye catching counterpoint to her unnaturally pale complexion. Her eyes were so dark that she appeared to have no pupils. This Orphan Annie look could either engage your trust or look right through you. Whether you were falling for her or running away, you had to admit that she was a real head turner.
When George Miller looked into the eyes of his strikingly beautiful high school sweetheart, nothing else mattered. The two were married a year and a half after George finished law school and another year and a half later they had their first child. Mitchell Decatur Miller was a healthy baby with strong lungs and a healthy appetite. He would scream when he was hungry and sleep when he was full. Consequently, everybody was surprised when he died suddenly just under one year of age. The family doctor pronounced the cause of death as sudden infant death syndrome. But those close to the family observed how Sharon had begun acting strangely and had other opinions regarding the cause of death.
George chose to ignore the rumors that were circulating around the family. He still cared deeply for Sharon and less than a year later she was pregnant with Rose. When she was well into her eighth month, George was called to Charleston for business. He invited Sharon to go with him rather than leave her alone among the leering family members. Perhaps he also thought that she would be safer with him that she would be by herself.
Twenty miles outside of Charleston Sharon began to experience severe pains. George floored his late model Cadillac and arrived at Mercy Hospital in less than twelve minutes. He pulled into the Emergency Room driveway, bouncing one tire up onto the painted curb. The staff at Mercy came out and informed him that they did not accept patients unless they were patients of the doctors who had privileges at the hospital. Apparently, they had a bad experience five years earlier that had caused them to change their policy about providing service for drive up emergencies. They informed George Miller that he would have to take his wife to Charleston General Hospital, which was another ten miles down the road.
By the time that George Miller arrived at Charleston General, Sharon had already lost consciousness. The staff wheeled her into the emergency room. A half an hour later the attending physician came out to give George the news, both good and bad. The good news was that he had a healthy daughter. The bad news was that Sharon had been hemorrhaging from a tear in the wall of her uterus and didn't survive the delivery. In a state of profound grief, George named his daughter Rose of Sharon and vowed that the loss of her mother would never leave a gap in the young girl's life.
The Miller clan had mixed feelings over the lose of Rose's mother. Some felt it was such a great loss for the young girl to grow up without a mother. Others felt that it was her salvation. The more cynical side of the Miller clan believed that Sharon had had a role in the death of the younger brother. They felt that had Sharon lived, the same fate awaited Rose and they said that the denial of treatment at Mercy Hospital was just the Miller's unbelievable good fortune being passed on to the next generation.
George Miller was grief stricken and refused to acknowledge the rumors and gossip. He even maintained his devotion to his departed wife after he came home from the funeral and found a linen drawer filled with thousands of bottle caps and pull-tabs.