Hillbilly Elegy

and give them my credit card
information. The cost for a week was a
hundred and fifty dollars, and I figured
that would give us time to come up with
a plan. But they wouldn’t accept my card
over the phone, so at eleven P.M. on a
Tuesday night, I drove from Cincinnati to
Middletown (about an hour’s drive each
way) to keep Mom from homelessness.
The plan I developed seemed
relatively simple. I’d give Mom enough
money to help her get on her feet. She’d
find her own place, save money to get
her nursing license back, and go from
there. In the meantime, I’d monitor her
finances to ensure that she stayed clean
and on track financially. It reminded me