Grace had never been able to find her mother and father, who both remained lost to her forever. She finds Hattie, and in the process rediscovers the home and family she’d created with Joseph, the home and family she’d been searching for since losing her parents all those years ago. The farm and the home and family it represents is meaningful to both Grace and Joseph, who instill that value in Hattie. As she grows up, they root her identity in the land that she lives and works on. Joseph has made peace with the fact that he doesn’t have a son, and instead allows Hattie to break traditional gender roles of the time, teaching her everything she needs to know to maintain the family farm and legacy. Hattie will later extend the same privileges to her gender-defiant granddaughter Morgan, showing how this piece of Joseph lives on in Hattie. Although he'd made peace with not having a son of his own, Joseph still believes the farm should return to male hands through his grandson, Sonny, but won’t live to see how little that legacy will mean to Sonny.