- A Funny Feeling
You’ll think you see her walking on the road, hunkered down in her coat like she did, that headscarf a knot at her chin. Turn, and it’ll be a stranger, some old woman from way up in the holler, trying to catch a ride into town.
Or just before good daylight, half-awake, you’ll swear you hear her talking in the kitchen, firing up the wood for breakfast meat and coffee. Open your eyes, house as still as tombs. It’s a funny feeling— now I’ll tell you. You don’t know a thing until you’ve lost your mother. [End Page 35]
Anne Shelby began publishing here in 1985, five years before her first book appeared, followed by five more children’s books, a book of essays, an award-winning collection of folk tales, and a poetry collection, Appalachian Studies. She lives in Clay County, Kentucky.