This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "The Other Wes Moore" by Wes Moore. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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What happens in The Other Wes Moore epilogue? Where are the characters from the book today?
In The Other Wes Moore epilogue, Moore catches up with with his and the other Wes Moore’s family and friends and lets the reader know where they are in life.
Continue on to find out more about The Other Wes Moore epilogue and where Wes Moore’s family and friends are now.
The Other Wes Moore Epilogue
In The Other Wes Moore epilogue, Moore explains where each of the main characters are today.
Wes Moore
As a Rhodes Scholar, Moore earned a master’s degree in international relations at Oxford University. After a year as an intern in Washington D.C., he decided the best way to understand America’s role in international policy was through finance. He joined the world of Wall Street.
Moore’s time on Wall Street was cut short when he decided to join in the war in Afghanistan as a member of the renowned 1st Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division as a paratrooper. Being back among American troops reminded Moore of why he’d enlisted to begin with. He had missed feeling part of something bigger than himself.
After his year-long deployment, Moore became the recipient of a White House Fellowship. He worked as a special assistant to Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state at the time. That same year, he married a woman named Dawn.
Moore’s life has been filled with adventures, from climbing Mount Kilimanjaro to singing in Carnegie Hall with a group of choir cadets. He’s traveled the world and spoke at the Democratic National Convention when Barack Obama accepted his nomination.
In 2007, Moore started work on this book to try to understand how two boys from the same community could end up so different. He interviewed countless people from both his life and Wes’s life to piece together their pasts and experiences. He spent two years filtering all of it down into this manuscript. He felt like a journalist while researching this book, and in The Other Wes Moore epilogue, he hopes he has done his father and his father’s profession proud.
The Other Wes Moore
Wes works as a carpenter in the Jessup Correctional Institution in Maryland. He is paid fifty-three cents a day. He wakes up, eats, uses the restroom, and goes outside when he is told to by the guards. He gets two hours of yard time a day, in which he plays basketball or simply talks to other prisoners.
When Wes first went to prison, he attended Friday mosque services to see Tony, the only time they could meet despite living in the same prison. But the more he heard about the Muslim religion, the more he wanted to learn. He now serves as a devout leader in the Muslim community behind bars.
Mary, Nicey, Alicia, and the children continue to visit Wes, but he mostly listens to what is happening in their lives. Nothing ever changes for him, and he has nothing new to say when they ask how he’s doing. He loves to see them, but he hates not being there for them.
At the time this book was written, Wes had started his tenth year in prison at thirty-three years old. He has become a grandfather. He still claims he was not present during the robbery or ensuing murder of Sergeant Prothero.
Family and Friends
In The Other Wes Moore epilogue, author Wes Moore’s mother, Joy Moore, works as a consultant for foundations, helping them learn to use film and media to get their messages out. She lives outside of Baltimore City, where life is calmer and quieter.
Nikki lives in Virginia and owns an event-planning company. Shani lives in Los Angeles with her husband. She attended both Princeton and Stanford, earning a full scholarship for law school at the latter.
Uncle Howard is still an influential presence in Moore’s life. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and two children. He was one of two best men at Moore’s wedding.
Justin was the other best man. After his mother died, he finished high school and earned a scholarship for college. As a senior, his father died in a fire and Justin was diagnosed with cancer. Today, he is cancer-free and the dean of a prestigious high school near Philadelphia, where he works to reduce disparities in education.
Captain Hill continued his service in the Army until 1999. He now works as a corporate lawyer in New York. He was a groomsman in Moore’s wedding, and the two are still close.
Moore’s grandmother still lives in the Bronx house. Her husband died of stomach cancer in 2005. She is still the fierce matriarch of her family.
The Other Wes Moore’s Family and Friends
Mary Moore lives in Aberdeen, Maryland, an hour away from Baltimore. She works in medical technology geared toward elder care. She is raising three of Wes’s children, her youngest son, and her niece and nephew on her own.
Aunt Nicey also works in elder care as a social worker for the State of Maryland. All of her children graduated from high school and live in either Maryland or Pennsylvania.
Alicia is raising the child that doesn’t live with Mary. She also lives in Aberdeen and works as a TSA officer at an airport. She lives close to Mary and still sees her other child.
Cheryl died a year after Wes’s sentencing at twenty-four years of age. She struggled with drug addiction for years, eventually losing all parental rights to her two children. She became paralyzed after falling down a flight of stairs, and her death is a result of the injuries sustained.
Wes’s friend Woody also had a number of stints in prison after graduating from high school. When his second child was born, his sister helped get him on his feet. He found work as a truck driver and still holds that job. He has three children and lives in West Baltimore.
The Other Wes Moore epilogue tells that Tony’s fate was the same as Wes’s for many years. However, in 2008, Tony developed kidney failure and died in prison at the age of thirty-eight.
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Like what you just read? Read the rest of the world's best book summary and analysis of Wes Moore's "The Other Wes Moore" at Shortform .
Here's what you'll find in our full The Other Wes Moore summary :
- How two men from similar communities can have vastly different lives
- What led one Wes Moore to become a Rhodes Scholar
- What led the other Wes Moore to a life sentence
