Judith Merrill

Judith Merrill is the daughter of Jason and Helen Merrill, and only sister of David Merrill.

Early Life
She was born as the American Civil Rights Movement began, which gave her parents hope for Judith's future, a future that would have been far more difficult without others who paved the way for a woman of mixed race and heritage to succeed. David could easily pass for white, but it was obvious from the start that Judith never would.

She grew up to be a tall woman who happily told anyone that would listen that being so tall made her as graceful as a three-legged gazelle. She'd inherited her grandmother's beauty, but none of the grace her father claimed her grandmother had once demonstrated.

Judith dealt with racists by ignoring them....or in some cases, lying them out on the ground with the self-defense training Jason made sure she received. She was black and she was Jewish, and Judith was well aware of the fact that that was two strikes against her in many eyes before she'd even taken her first steps.

College was easier; in college, people were usually more concerned with not failing out of school than to be after her for being a mixed-race child. Also, her peers were starting to notice that she was beautiful. Judith, meanwhile, was starting to realize that she was only interested in looking at girls.

Meeting Django Whetū for the first time also helped to ease her feelings of being an alien in a white man's world, since he was also a mixed-race child of an interracial couple. Judith became a fierce defender of Django's children, even when she was far away, and gave hell to any school official who stepped out of line in regards to her semi-adopted niblings.

Later Life
She met Evelyn Jones while the two were both serving their internships in the United Nations. It took a while for Judith to convince Evelyn that she wasn't scary. She was mostly not scary, and also still often tripped over things. They began a friendship that evolved into a relationship that continues to this day, sharing a remodeled Victorian home in Seattle, Washington.