When my mother suddenly became ill with a heart problem, I was drafted to replace her in my father’s medical office near the Smoky Mountains. I didn’t relish the idea of taking any leave from my glamorous job as a U.S. Senate lawyer, but it was a genuine emergency and I was assured I would be needed for only a couple of days.

How could I say no?

So I rushed home from Washington to fill in as a receptionist for a rural family doctor in East Tennessee. But then, to my growing horror, the “couple of days” stretched into weeks and months and years.

Heart in the Right Place, an alternately laugh-out-loud-funny and cry-your-eyes-out-serious memoir about the down-sizing of my life from white marble columns, gilded domes, and Neiman Marcus to naugahyde, peeling linoleum, and Wal-mart.

The photo below is of my 6' tall neighbor, Miss Hattie Weaver.