be level out and things quieten for the family. Shortly after their marriage, Honey discovers she is pregnant, giving birth to Zach. Her joy quickly evaporates, though, when she is diagnosed with tuberculosis. She leaves for a sanatorium to recover and Max is forced to raise the four children. When she returns one year later, Honey finds that the children have grown and changed and that everyone in town is scared of her due to her illness. Slowly, she recovers her hair salon and tries to begin her life again. Soon, her life is back to normal. May Bailey May (Shirley Douglas) is Honey's domineering mother-in-law. She and her late husband are the founders of the town. They ran a mining operation that continued to keep the family going. May's money and prestige allow her to have whatever she wants. She uses her pride, her sense of family, and her religion to justify most of her highly manipulative actions. She is often right, but all of the conclusions could have been reached in far less intrusive ways. She never lets people reach their own conclusions. Due to her deeply held Protestant ways, she is completely intolerant and unaccepting of Honey's Catholicism and any effects on the boys, something about which she is not quiet. Through conversations with Grace, her daughter, she is also revealed to still resent Honey for having taken her late son away from the family mining business. This does seem unknown to Honey. Very soon after Jack's death, she forces Honey to give up her small daughter, Violet, and keeps her from getting a job in the town, knowing this would force Honey to leave to look for work elsewhere. May views the boys as a second chance, an opportunity to fix the mistakes she made with her own sons. While her decisions are often harsh and manipulative, May honestly believes that her decisions are what is best for the family. May can be a confusing mix of qualities. She is frequently self-serving and manipulative, but she can show moments of true gentleness, kindness, and understanding. These moments are few, but they do allow some insight into who she really is. She also allows snippets of explanation out when she talks to the boys. In one of her responses to a request from the boys, she reveals what has happened in her life to bring her to