Billy Eichner

And it wasn't a facade.

It wasn't an affectation.

This is who she was.

She was an incredibly optimistic person.

She would tell my dry cleaner she loved him.

Whenever we would leave the dry cleaner, she would say, love you, love you, everyone.

It became like a catchphrase in her world, you know, love you, love you, love you.

She would say that to everyone.

At the same time, people are complicated.

And she had this on-again, off-again addiction to prescription diet pills when I was a kid, which were basically speed in the 80s and 90s.

And she also had an underlying heart condition, which leads to her having a heart attack when I was in college, which I talk about in the book.

But before that, taking those pills would make her very emotional.

and a bit more overreactive than she usually was.

So it would cause a lot of fights between her and my dad.

And when she wasn't on the pills, they would never fight.

And when she was on the pills, she was fighting with everyone.

However, if I'm being honest, the pills also allowed her, I think, to express some of the pain she had

in a way she couldn't uh when she was sober if that makes sense and so once yeah i witnessed her and my dad having this fight i don't remember what the fight was about but

My dad, as you'll hear in the book, is a very loving man, but stoic.

My dad was in the Korean War.