The Ring They Said I Pawned
“Ask Wanda where Mama’s ring went. She knows her way to a pawn counter.” My brother Vance said that at our mother’s funeral lunch, in… Read more
The Hymn That Brought My Brother Back
I want to tell you about the morning I buried my mother in Wickett, Nebraska, a town so small the welcome sign and the goodbye… Read more
The Ledger The Thief Never Read
The first time Royce Tillman called me sweet, I should have counted my fingers after he let go of my hand. He came into Hapgood… Read more
The Janitor Who Was a War Hero
For eleven years I walked past Alistair Bram every single morning and said maybe four words to him. “Morning.” Sometimes not even that. Sometimes just… Read more
The Chapel My Mother Made Us Share
For thirty years my sister Verna and I lived eleven miles apart and never crossed them. You can do that, in a country town. People… Read more
The Locked Box in the Attic
My father shook my hand at my own wedding. Not a hug. A handshake, firm and quick, the way you’d close a deal with a… Read more