Hillbilly Elegy

Mamaw, and how those were among the
few times Papaw ever showed a mean
streak, because, as he once told me, “the
measure of a man is how he treats the
women in his family.” His wisdom came
from experience, from his own earlier
failures with treating the women in his
family well.
I stood up in that funeral home,
resolved to tell everyone just how
important he was. “I never had a dad,” I
explained. “But Papaw was always
there for me, and he taught me the things
that men needed to know.” Then I spoke
the sum of his influence on my life: “He
was the best dad that anyone could ever
ask for.”