Hi Graham... I do not mean that taking the child is forced!!! Settlement is a very sensitive issue for Travellers. As a result of nearly one thousand years of forced migration - upon pain of death for stoping for more than 24 hours through out most of Europe, a form of this law exists today in France, where nomadic travellers are moved on at gun point after 24 hours, though capital punnishment is no longer perscribed... but to the point, Traveller culture has adapted wonderfully to centuries of forced migration. Now, their community and culture and ecconomy is based on nomadism - or more accurately, being semi nomadic. Forced settlement means the loss of cultural eliments that are to a degree definitional in the way Travellers think of themselves. Now, for a society which has accepted that we are all interchangeable, and no American is expected to have one job for ones whole work life, this nexus between who we are and what we do is not easy to understand. I have some understanding from my contact with the Traveller communities. They, and Roma, were the first people I knew to use cell phones, a huge new adaptation to the flow of this community in their patterned migrations. Most calls I get,(many a week, sometimes many a day) one can hear that the call comes from a family on the road. hey are travelling between work - wedings, funerals, reunions constantly. To be forced off the road, is to be bannished from one's community, ones town. Their town is in motion and being forced to settle is to stand by and watch your world pass on to the next stop without you. So yes, Martha's grandmother is making a great sacrifice and compromise, and one that I don't feel is fully within that child's interest. She should be at weddings, she should be with other Traveller children, She should be who she has a right to be.
Thanks for the respectful nature of your interest, Graham.
All the best, Larry