Full Body Burden

Iversen’s father remains a source of tension throughout her story. In an early scene, young Iversen listens to him come home late from his law practice: “His hours are odd and he spends little time at home, but when he’s there, his presence is heavy and I always know where he is in the house” (46). Several scenes show him irritable, disheveled, and stressed in front of his family, although Iversen notes how his clients adore him for tirelessly working on their behalf. His alcohol consumption appears to escalate as Iversen grows up, and she defines his presence more and more through his absence.

The family reacts to Iversen’s dad with varying levels of denial, anger, and avoidance as he drifts further away and faces legal trouble for behavior like drunk driving. Iversen’s mother comes to fear her father’s violent outbursts, and the two gradually separate. Many years after he has lost his law practice and divorced her mother, Iversen’s father apologizes for causing the car accident that broke her neck. 

Iversen’s mother cares for her four children and has a turbulent relationship with their father. She enforces the family’s pervasive secrecy, and Iversen detests “The way she keeps up appearances and covers things up” (85). Her cheery facade slips over the years as the stresses of the family continue to fall on her, and she works as a nurse to offset her husband’s failing law practice. She begins to share her worries and fears with her daughter during “whispered bedroom conversations” (126) as Iversen grows into adolescence. She maintains affection for her husband during their long separation but finally divorces him. However, she still reminisces about their happy early days. 

Karin is the second child of the Iversen family. As the closest in age to Iversen, she is the author’s close childhood playmate. Early scenes of Karin show her fascination with a woman sleeping in her car in Bridledale and her defiance in pouring her father’s alcohol down the drain. Iversen describes her as “the rebel, the one with a temper and the one who can say things the rest of us don’t have the guts to say” (59). 

Karma is the third oldest in the Iversen family. She develops a love of horseback riding that rivals Iversen’s and joins her in local riding competitions. As a teenager, she becomes an activist and maintains her stance against Rocky Flats as an adult: “Always a quiet, serious girl, she no longer seems to be the ‘sweet little bird’ [...] She spends time at meetings and rallies, talking about feminism and environmentalism” (140). She becomes a soil scientist as an adult and struggles with health issues like Iversen and her other siblings. 

Kurt is the youngest Iversen child. During high school, he contracts a disease that appears to be leukemia, but he suddenly recovers. Immune-related health problems recur throughout his life, which Iversen suspects might be the result of Rocky Flats’ environmental contamination. He lives in Arvada as an adult and raises his children alongside Iversen’s while she earns her Ph.D.  

Iversen dates Mark during her college years. The passionate young man objects to the Vietnam War and the pollution of Rocky Flats, and he plays music at a local club. He teaches Iversen to rock climb, and the two share a happy relationship. Mark dies during a climbing accident, devastating Iversen. She thinks and dreams about him during later seasons of life, particularly during her time working at Rocky Flats. 

Randy Sullivan appears throughout Iversen’s story, first as a childhood neighbor, then as a colleague at Rocky Flats. As young people, the two have romantic feelings for each other that go unexpressed. Once he marries and has children, he becomes a firefighter at Rocky Flats. In 2003, Randy fights a dangerous plutonium fire at the plant and undergoes extensive decontamination due to high levels of plutonium exposure. 

Dr. Carl Johnson serves as the Jefferson County Board of Health director beginning in 1973. He conducts a series of studies on environmental contamination from Rocky Flats and radiation’s possible health effects. Rocky Flats officials oppose his efforts, but Johnson maintains his dogged pursuit of the truth. This “unlikely renegade” (169) is ousted from his position in 1981 but continues publishing scientific studies and speaking about Rocky Flats’ wrongdoing in public.

Ann White is a local Colorado activist who demonstrates against Rocky Flats. Police arrest her for her participation in a demonstration against the plant; she hosts poet Allen Ginsberg when he visits to join the protests. A friend connects Iversen with Ann, and the two discuss the protests and the cleanup of Rocky Flats. 

Pat McCormick is a nun with the Sisters of Loretto who advocates for social justice around the world. She participates in frequent prayer gatherings and protests of Rocky Flats. On Ash Wednesday, she and a friend drive inside the plant’s fence and protest with prayer and crosses before being arrested for trespassing.

After working her way up at Rocky Flats, Debby Clark becomes one of the few female guards at the facility. Iversen depicts Debby’s perspective during protests as she stands against activists like Ann White. 

An FBI agent for the Environmental Crimes Division, Jon Lipsky leads the June 6, 1989 raid on Rocky Flats. Working with EPA agent William Smith and attorney Ken Fimberg, Lipsky creates a strategy to catch Rocky Flats officials in wrongdoing through a sweep of their secretive facility and confidential documents.  

Despite threats from Rockwell officials, Jacque Brever talks to the FBI during the raid of Rocky Flats. She feels uneasy about participating in the illegal operation of the incinerator and other activities she observes while working at the plant. Her coworkers harass and demean her after they learn she has turned whistleblower, and Jacque quits her job at Rocky Flats. 

To his surprise, Wes McKinley spends two years immersed in the story of Rocky Flats. He serves as the foreman on the grand jury trial resulting from the FBI raid. McKinley is shocked at the conclusion of the trial and makes public his desire to see Rocky Flats officials brought to justice.