Summary

As she begins the second part of Chapter 2, the author then considers a set of events and circumstances that changed her family’s fortunes, and her family’s life as a unit. First, there was the accidental fire that caused the family’s barn to burn, a particularly painful accident since, the author says, her father had built the barn himself and was very proud of it. Then there was a temporary job at a large company for which he was paid a significant amount, but which left him exhausted, depressed, and prone to heavy drinking since things were not great with Jeannie at home. Then there was his experience of being poisoned by fumes from the chemicals he was being paid to haul, an encounter with death that left him the beneficiary of a substantial cash settlement from the company that hired...