Chapter One

I was born in Dyersburg, Tennessee, in 1961, which was a rural, blue-collar, farming town near the Mississippi river. My mother and father's families all worked very hard. Most of them were either farmers or factory workers. As a young girl, my mother picked cotton to buy her own clothes for school.

My parents met and grew up on the same gravel road in a community called Willisville, which was also my mother's maiden name. The people in that community were very kind, and gave much of themselves and their time. They were always willing to help anyone in need, and had a strong sense of love for each other. When my mother and father met they literally lived a stone's throw from each other. My mother grew up thinking marriage was the next step after graduating from high school. However, my dad dropped out of high school and joined the Navy at the age of eighteen. He and my mother married before he left for the service, and I was born while he was in Guam.

While my father was away, my mother and I lived with my grandparents in Willisville. I was the apple of my grandparents' eye. My grandfather was a farmer and involved in local politics. He also had a little grocery store that served as a local hangout for the farmers in the community. They would all sit around playing dominoes, eating sliced bologna sandwiches, and talking about how if they were in charge of the country things would be better.

My father met me, his son, when I turned four months. I was scared of him, my mother told me, because I viewed him as a stranger. That disconnect would continue throughout my l