For years, I carried memories I did not always know how to explain. I grew up in a small West Tennessee town where the fields were wide, the silence was heavy, and a little girl learned early how to watch, listen, and survive.

Writing became a way to return to those moments with honesty — not to stay wounded, but to finally understand the woman they shaped.

I spent a long time being last: the one who held everyone together, who gave more than she kept, who mistook being needed for being loved. Never First is where I finally set that story down.