“But most women in my neighbourhood are practically minded and strong like that. You make do with what you have.” “Is your mother the same?” Alan chewed his lip. “Used to be,” he admitted. “Less so now. She spent so much of herself keeping us alive when my pa died, before I could pull my weight. There’s only so much fight in a person. If it never lets up, if they can never rest—it gets squeezed out of them, forever.”
