Heather Angell

And my sisters and I weren't really getting along.

My family had moved to a much smaller house and I used to sleep on a cot on the porch.

And I didn't really feel like anybody at home really liked me that much.

But when I came to the farm, they were always glad to see me.

It was sort of like a sober, daytime, dirtier version of Cheers.

And I knew that when I came back from school, I'd always have a job at the farm, and I started selling Christmas trees for them in the winter.

And my college friends soon realized that the old man was more than just my boss.

He was something else.

And he and his wife, never anyone I called the old lady, too much respect for her for that.

Not that there's anything wrong with old ladies, but they kind of became like my surrogate grandparents.

And I would come back from the farm and visit them even after I stopped working there.

I can't remember when they stopped paying me, but at some point I just would come and work.

And that continued on in my life.

And one time I was visiting them.

By this time, I was in my early 30s.

And his wife looked at me across the table of the farm kitchen middle of winter and said, more like it was a question, but it was a statement.

You've never met a guy you wanted to marry?

And I took a deep breath and I said, well, I don't really date guys anymore.

And the old man nodded and said, I knew it.

And he had this like self-satisfied smirk, you know?