It was late in the summer of my parents’ lives that I was born into a family with three children well on their way to being grown and done with home. Life had been a struggle for Mama and Daddy en route to escaping completely the poverty of their Appalachian childhoods. They were married for 12 years before they owned their first lamp — I have and cherish that piece of earthly gain — which was acquired through the generosity of a church congregation that pooled its money and bought it for them.