Everybody, Always: Becoming Love in a World Full of Setbacks and Difficult People

Adam is the youngest of the three Goff children and the person in the family his father writes about most extensively. While Goff speaks little about the personalities of his family members, he does mention that Adam is an adventurer. To keep Adam interested enough to graduate from high school, Goff arranged for his son to take flying lessons. In Everybody, Always, he tells the story of Adam’s flying lessons and the way his father challenged him to take off and then land a seaplane in a lake at the bottom of a particularly dangerous mountain canyon. Adam is also a skydiver. Watching his son parachute from an airplane caused Goff to decide he should support his son by taking up the hobby as well. Goff writes at the end of the book that he and Adam are still skydiving together.

As with most other non-family members in the book, Goff does not supply the last name of Carol. She appears in the early chapters when Goff and his family select her to be their neighbor. Goff purchased a house across the street from his previous home and recognized that any new resident would be a neighbor as well. He asserts that the entire family vetted Carol, who is portrayed as adoring of the Goff children.

The pivotal event in her story occurs when she relates that she has been diagnosed with cancer. Goff’s response is to purchase walkie-talkies so he can speak to her regularly without using the phone. He and his family lavish attention on Carol as her disease progresses. Goff describes her movement toward death as a time of growth and joy. In his Epilogue, as he lists various individuals about whom he had written, Goff remarks, “Carol is still in heaven” (221).

Charlie is the eight-year-old Ugandan boy who survived disfigurement and attempted murder at the hands of a witch doctor. In glowing terms, Goff describes Charlie’s courage in standing up in the courtroom and identifying Kabi, the witch doctor, as “the man who tried to kill me” (190). Following the trial, Charlie came to the United States to undergo reconstructive surgery. One of the most poignant aspects of the boy’s story is Goff’s description of how he was abandoned by his family after being mutilated.

For his birthday, Goff allowed Charlie to choose any kind of adventure or trip he wanted. Charlie chose to make a 40-mile hike to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, with Goff accompanying him. At the time of publication, Charlie was receiving medical treatments, and it was hoped he would make a full recovery.

Goff initially describes Kabi, the Ugandan witch doctor who attacked Charlie and left him for dead, as being a person of unmitigated evil and hatred. His silent stare during the court proceedings unnerved many who observed him. Goff writes about the way the camera he brought to video the trial broke down while focused on Kabi’s face. Goff quipped, “I assumed the witch doctor’s stare was covered by Nikon’s warranty, so we shared a nervous laugh, got out another camera, and got back to work” (190).

Kabi is amazingly transformed after his conviction. Goff meets with him in the prison, and the two have a remarkably candid discussion. Kabi eventually preaches to the men in the prison and, to Goff’s astonishment, begins to baptize many. Having asked Goff’s forgiveness, at a certain point in the religious ceremony, Kabi embraces Goff and says he forgives him. The Epilogue reports that Kabi grew ill and died in prison.