Hillbilly Elegy

a TV show with her on a Friday night, a
creepy murder mystery, the type of show
Mamaw loved to watch. At the climax of
the show, during a moment designed to
make the viewer jump, Mamaw flipped
off the lights and screamed in my ear.
She’d seen the episode before and knew
what was coming. She made me sit there
for forty-five minutes just so she could
scare me at the appointed time.
The best part about living with
Mamaw was that I began to understand
what made her tick. Until then, I had
resented how rarely we traveled to
Kentucky after Mamaw Blanton’s death.
The decline in visits wasn’t noticeable
at first, but by the time I started middle