Hillbilly Elegy

and disburse what remained. For the
first time, Uncle Jimmy learned Mom’s
true financial impact on Mamaw—the
drug rehab charges, the numerous
“loans” never repaid. To this day, he
refuses to speak to her.
For those of us well acquainted with
Mamaw’s generosity, her financial
position came as no surprise. Though
Papaw had worked and saved for over
four decades, the only thing of value that
remained was the house he and Mamaw
had purchased fifty years earlier. And
Mamaw’s debts were large enough to eat
into a substantial portion of the home’s
equity. Lucky for us, this was 2005—the
height of the real estate bubble. If she