Susan Saulny

And that's something that America as a whole has never done.

You know, so many people in the aftermath of the story ask me, but no, really, who do you think was better off?

Was it worth it in the end?

And I say...

Okay, first of all, I think it's an unanswerable question.

But if someone were to force that, it depends on what standard you're using.

What is your measuring stick?

Is your measuring stick community and kinship and culture and building a family from nothing?

You know, if that's the measuring stick, might lead you in one direction.

If your measuring stick is

purely financial success and property and accomplishment in business or law, then that's, you know, going to lead you to a different answer.

I don't answer that question because I think it's unanswerable.

And I think they both had hard times and I think they both had things that they wanted to achieve that they achieved.

Now, I think George's riches, just because I spent the most time with him and can speak to what I think he thought made his life rich, it was kinship and culture.

And it sort of makes me think that that's why African-American kinship and culture is as strong as it is, because it augmented some of the poverty of what was there, some of what was taken away, some of what was lost.

We doubled down on that, and look what it produced.

I mean, in New Orleans, it produced wonderful things if you consider the food, the music, the impact on, oh gosh, too many things to even name.

So from the moment I discovered that Arthur existed, I knew I wanted to get them together.

But we're talking about an 85-year-old and a 95-year-old, right?

But it was just so stunning that my mother didn't know she had a first cousin who could have been in her life.