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All right.

It's time for that theme song. So I'm Melissa Sweeney. And I'm Nate Reisman and this that we felt they deserved their own episode.

A Patreon members will recognize one of these stories from earlier this year, so we're

so excited to present them as one complete tale.

An added bonus is that Ashley is taking us back to the Appalachian Mountains.

You can see me in the dark presents.

Ashley. My name is Ashley. I was born and raised in Ohio and I live here still with my husband and my two children. So both sides of my family have deep apple-acid roots and my dad's parents moved here to Ohio shortly before he was born. They are from southwest Virginia, that little point in Virginia where Virginia, Kentucky and West Virginia all meet. And it's what they call the heart of Appalachia. It's really remote and it's deep in the mountains. They grew up with no electricity or running water, very few cars, not many roads. And my grandparents actually met when my grandpa came across my grandma walking through the holler carrying supplies. And he was riding his horse and he offered her a ride home.

My grandpa was a coal miner, the same as his dad and his dad before him.

And he was heavily involved in miners' rights and union organizing.

It was really important to him, but there were a lot of layoffs at the mines

and sometimes they would have to move up north for temporary work in the factories. And at one point, great grandpa asked him to take over the family farm, but grandpa wanted to make his own way. So they decided to move permanently to Ohio. And he worked as a farmhand and eventually he found a good job at a factory and that was kind of that. My grandparents always said that they didn't fully appreciate the beauty of their home until they moved away. But they never lost that connection to the mountains and they've returned to Southwest Virginia every year. At least every July for our family reunion in Dickinson County. And I've been going ever since I was a small child. And we kind of have the same, no, a thing we do every time. We always stop by the old farms and the home places and do a little hiking in the mountains. And it's just really beautiful and it feels so welcoming. I have been obsessed with old things since I was a little girl. I love old objects. I love old people. Old stories and I've always loved learning about our family history.

My parents had some hard times with my sisters and I were little and so we spent a lot of time at my grandparents' house and I would just pour over all of the old family trees and the stories and the photographs and ask questions and collect stories and memories.

So going to Virginia and July always kind of felt like coming home to me. I always felt like I had this connection to the land and the people and the mountains and I never could quite explain it but I've felt it really deeply.

So several years ago, my husband and I were planning to go back again for the reunion. And at this point, he'd gone with me several times and he was absolutely in love with it too. And he knew how special it was to me. This time, I was due to give birth to our first child in May. that I was determined to bring the baby back in July

so I could show them off to everyone.

I was really excited about it.

But after a really uneventful pregnancy, my water broke two months early,

...