Don't Annoy the Crazy Person: A Memoir

He handed me a piece of a tree.The last time Chad Dawson saw his father alive, Marvin gave him a slice of hickory with eight words burned into it. It took years to understand it was a warning, a confession, and a goodbye.She was married seven times before she found my father. A real estate broker with a Volvo, a spotless house, and a gift for finding whatever you hid. For thirty years she ran a family the way she ran a listing - and when the man at the center of it started to disappear, she closed the door and sold what was left.This is a son's account of growing up inside a model home, of two brothers who chose opposite strategies and both lost, and of a quiet man who could not say no to his wife but who found one perfect way to say goodbye to his sons.Funny the way a wake is funny. Honest the way only a man with nothing left to protect can be honest.