A personal Memoir of the author's life from the age of four until nineteen. Her place is third in a family where there had been 11 pregnancies. This story is infused with themes of Poverty, Extreme Catholicism, Childhood abuse and Neglect, Alcohol, and the Fallout of a lack of parental love and support. Unsparingly written, this story opens the locked box of family secrets and exposes them to the light. The lack of parental fitness for their obligation to raise secure and sturdy children runs front stage in this memoir. It details a portion of the population not often written about: The White Poor. Despite this background, the author emerges wounded, but intact. Compassionate and creative. Perhaps it is the family's communal passion for music that saves them.