“When Mamaw picked me up from school, I’d ask her not to get out of the car lest my friends see her – wearing her uniform of baggy jeans and a men’s T-shirt – with a giant menthol cigarette hanging from her lip. When people asked, I lied and told them that I lived with my mom, that she and I took care of my ailing grandmother. Even today, I still regret that far too many high school friends and acquaintances never knew Mamaw was the best thing that ever happened to me. My.”