This is the Moth Radio Hour. I'm Chloe Salmon. A saving grace is what usually

rescues something or someone from being a lost cause.

But I've always appreciated another more optimistic view.

A saving grace as the support we get unexpectedly, and often when we most need it.

In this hour, stories of finding grace in surprising places.

It seems fitting that our first story comes from a man named Hope.

He told it for us at a slam in Chicago, where we partner with public radio station WBEZ.

Here's Hope E.A.O.I. Live at the Moth.

So, growing up in Houston, I was shaped by a couple things that I couldn't escape. One of them was my siblings.

And they're good people.

My sister, praise, is three years older than me.

My younger brother, Peace is one year younger, praise, is three years older than me. My younger brother,

Peace is one year younger, and truth is two years younger. But they're done that name's four

you, they're okay. And we're all really close in age and we're all really close in size.

So we were really cramped in this second thing that shaped me, this tiny apartment,

two bedrooms, the bathroom was frankly disgusting, for the kids at least.

And a big part of that was the routine of us cleaning that in the entire house, honestly, the entire apartment.

My mom would come into our room.

We heard her before we saw her because she was singing Nigerian gospel music and we knew

that it was that Saturday that we were going to clean the bathroom.

It was a little traumatizing.

The bathroom itself, there was a corner that was just completely mildewed.

...