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she said, it’s hard to have hope
when there is no hope: she’d run

back and forth looking after people
till her legs wouldn’t work: she

would send her legs a message and they
either wouldn’t get it or wouldn’t

do it: she just lay there, poor
thing: I told her to have hope: she

said there wasn’t any, or not enough
to pay much attention to: she died:

the adopted son she staked her life
on was shot dead by somebody at the

7–11: just a month or so later:
she didn’t know about that: I reckon

she got off just in time: you’d be
surprised, though, how folks can get

over something like that and keep
on trucking, if they have legs: she

didn’t: nope: but she didn’t know
anything about the son: pretty

lucky: old lady