“No one expected you to amount to much," she told me. "Lori was the smart one, Maureen the pretty one, and Brian the brave one. You never had much going for you except that you always worked hard.”

“But no matter how much planning you do, one tiny miscalculation, one moment of distraction, can end it all in an instant.”

“There was nothing to compare with standing on a ice of land you owned free and clear. No one could push you off it, no one could take it from you, no one could tell you what to do with it.”

“You West Virginia girls are one tough breed," he said.You got that right," I told him.”

“Mom always said people worried too much about their children. Suffering when you are young is good for you, she said. It immunized your body and your soul.”

“You didn't need a college degree to become one of the people who knew what was really going on. If you paid attention, you could pick things up on your own.”

“She had her addictions and one of them was reading.”