““Growing up out here in the country taught me things. Taught me that after the first fat flush of life, time eats away at things: it rusts machinery, it matures animals to become hairless and featherless, and it withers plants. Once a year or so, I see it in Pop, how he got leaner and leaner with age, the tendons in him standing out, harder and more rigid, every year. His Indian cheekbones severe. But since Mama got sick, I learned pain can do that, too.””
![“In my mother's time, [pain] was a secret burden, and women were admired for their ability to ignore, to be silent, to be selfless… Now we can speak it, and that's true healing, not a problem--to admit there is some constant pain.” quote by Terese Marie Mailhot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/3ef/terese-marie-mailhot-281987_pain_in-my-mother-s-time-pain-was-a-secret-bu_1314864.jpg)
