chapter 10

Like Papaw, Mamaw requested a visitation in Middletown as well as a funeral and burial in Kentucky. As he drove with Lindsay and their mother to Kentucky, Bev ranted that Mamaw was her mother, not Vance and Lindsay’s, that they both loved Mamaw too much. Although Vance was angrier than ever before at these comments, Lindsay put them to rest by saying, “‘No, Mom. She was our mom, too.’” When Vance returned to North Carolina, he hit a wet patch of road and hydroplaned, nearly driving the car off a guardrail, when the car suddenly stopped. He imagined Mamaw in heaven, protecting him from harm. This marked the first time Vance let himself cry about Mamaw’s death.