Margaret Witwicky

''"Hell fire....Hell fire on you, son!" ''

Born in 1917, the sixth kid in a family of eight, Jeremiah Herbert Witwicky grew up in an environment of unspeakable poverty. His education ended in the third grade when he was forced to abandoned his academic pursuit to work as a field worker as the Great Depression loomed. Scraping by through his early life left him emotionally scarred, as he continuously was in panic of losing the meager sum he was able to earn working 18-hour days in grasshopper-infested fields.

One day, while working in the fields, Jeremiah began complaining of back pains and a fever. He was found passed out in a field and was brought to a nearby hospital by other workers and diagnosed with pneumonia. During his few days in the hospital, delierious with fever, he had repeated visions of being visited by Jesus. When he recovered, he vowed to pursue a godly path in every aspect of his life.

In 1935, he met his wife Margaret, a nurse, at a church. The courtship was minimum as both agreed that it was destined by God that they marry one another.

Jeremiah's wife gave birth to their first son, William. True to his promise to God when he was in the hospital, Jeremiah raised William as if he was on order from God. In his Biblical interpreatation, Jeremiah raised William in an environment that stressed hard work, submission to God, and virtually devoid of play. Though not abusive, Jeremiah did not hesitate to "correct" his son with a switch or a belt if he thought he fell out of favor with his wishes.

While William (Sparkplug) was obediant, he slowly began to envision how he would treat his sons when time would come for him to be a father. Jeremiah rarely expressed any affection for his son, but internally, he was relatively proud of his son's work ethic. The same couldn't be said for his second son, Ronald. Ron's incessant curiosity for new ideas and new ways of thinking ran in stark contrast with Jeremiah's increasingly radicalized "salt of the Earth" Biblical views. As an adolescent, Ron grew more rebellious of his fundamentalist uprbringing, enrolling in college, embracing the counter culture and eventually making a living in the music industry as a stage technician.

When Sparkplug met Susan and eventually had two sons, William made a concerted effort to minimize their sons contact with Jeremiah as the progressive-leaning Susan always felt ill at ease around a man that she believed was utterly incapable of mirth. When Susan was tragically killed in a car accident, Jeremiah warned Sparkplug that Susan's death was not an accident, but a message from God to William. The message: you're straying from the "true path" to God and you will be punished.

Sparkplug and Jeremiah's relationship over the years remained strained, but Sparkplug remained respectful, oftentimes hiding his anger toward his father. Still, Sparkplug took the best aspects of Jeremiah's parenting style (emphasizing hard work, respect for your elders), and did his best to shed Jeremiah's worst traits, which even with Susan, he knew Spike and Buster would require a vastly different type of parenting.

Jeremiah grew more isolated and bitter as the years progressed. In one of his final trips out of the state, he visited Sparkplug in the hospital when Sparkplug was maintaining a near constant vigil near his son's side. Jumped by Frenzy at Spike's worksite, Sparkplug's son sustained injuries that required physicians to administer a medically-induced coma in order for him to survive. While Spike was clinging by a thread to his life, Jeremiah scolded Sparkplug, saying Spike's injuries were brought on by God for his obvious infatuation with "false idols" (read: Autobots) and God was striking him down to punish Sparkplug for not providing a more Godly background. He also admonished Sparkplug for his "failure" for raising Buster as he feared Buster was turning into a "long-haired, weak-willed, Godless deviant".

In the late '90s, Jeremiah died in a state home. Though Sparkplug has tried to visit his father's grave and understand his father's intentions, he has yet to fully forgive all of his father's failings.