Nikki Welch

“People don’t gather after a death to mourn, but rather to reaffirm why life matters and to remember to exult in the only one we’ll ever have. We hold funerals, memorials, celebrations—whatever you want to call them—to seek and to find the heart of the matter of this trip we call Life.”
― Heather Lende, Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer

“Other people have all kinds of names for their grandparents: grandpa, nana, pop pop, granny and so on, yet I've never heard anyone say mamaw or papaw outside of our community. These names belong only to Hillbilly grandparents”
― J.D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

“Is there some lesson on how to be friends?
I think what it means is that central to living
A life that is good is a life that's forgiving.
We're creatures of contact, regardless of whether
to kiss or to wound, we still must come together.”
― David Rakoff, Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish

“There is nothing lower than the poor stealing from the poor. It's hard enough as it is. We sure as hell don't need to make it even harder on each other.”
― J.D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis