The Boy in the Window: A Mennonite Memoir

Growing up as a Ragland boy meant a one-way street to nowhere, until the Mennonites moved to town. Robert Ragland toiled every day on his family’s Appalachian tobacco farm as a young boy. His father, an impoverished and illiterate sharecropper, spent his earnings on alcohol and beat his children and wife constantly. And Robert couldn’t take one more strike. Meanwhile, Mennonite families had moved to town, providing food and comfort when Robert’s mother broke her leg. Witnessing compassion from these people, Robert wondered, What would it feel like to belong to a group where I was wanted, loved, and appreciated? What if I could break free my father’s abuse and the Ragland destiny? What if I could become one of them? Desperate to escape his lot in life as a white trash failure, Robert joins the Mennonite church, gets married, and becomes a father. Despite his new life, Robert hides dark secrets and deep wounds from his Mennonite family. The Boy in the Window is a powerful true account of heartbreak, defeat, and failure. But most of all, it’s an inspirational story of redemption, healing, and hope.