What is one negative event that influences Rachel in The Girl Who Fell From the Sky?

The death
of her mother and siblings is a negative event that influences Rachel.

The
deaths of Rachel's mother and her siblings sets the entire narrative in motion.  It is an event
that also profoundly impacts Rachel.  As a result, she is forced to live in Portland.  The
entire questioning of her identity on racial grounds takes place in this setting.  

The absence of a mother plunges Rachel into a world of...