Nancy was a total doll and my mother put aside her reflexive cynicism for the evening. Let me tell ya, my mom could really dish if she felt like it, so that was a testament not just to her intestinal fortitude but her natural intelligence too. To accept me dropping out and becoming, of all things, a musician, and now to accept that I was about to be married outside of the faith—Nancy’s conversion notwithstanding—was unheard of in the world she’d grown up in, but she understood that the world was changing and, difficult though it must have been for her, throughout her life she’d continue to let
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