Hillbilly Elegy

My own view is mixed. Whatever
might be said about my mom’s parents’
roles in my life, their constant fighting
and alcoholism must have taken its toll
on her. Even when they were children,
the fighting seemed to affect my aunt and
mother differently. While Aunt Wee
would plead with her parents to calm
down, or provoke her father in order to
take the heat off her mother, Mom would
hide, or run away, or collapse on the
floor with her hands over her ears. She
didn’t handle it as well as her brother
and sister. In some ways, Mom is the
Vance child who lost the game of
statistics. If anything, my family is
probably lucky that only one of them lost