From PRX, this is the Moth Radio Hour. I'm Chloe Sammon. 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 EOI 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 prays as three

years older than me. My younger brother, peace is one year younger and truth is two years

younger. But the other things for you, they're okay. And we're all really close in age

and we're all really close in size. So we really cramped in the second thing that shaped

me this tiny apartment as two bedrooms. The bathroom was just frankly disgusting for

the kids at least. And a big part of that was the routine of us cleaning that and 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 during gospel music. And we knew that it was

that Saturday that we're going to clean the bathroom. It was a little traumatizing. The

bathroom itself, there was a corner that was just completely mildewed. I think the

road she's there would rent to other road she's. It wasn't a good look for anybody.

But thankfully we were able to move out of that apartment. My mom and dad bought their

house. Thankfully moving up. But that routine continued. We had the Saturday morning, gospel

music, the Saturday morning cleaning, things continued as usual. I'm thinking back to

a time when I was about 15 and my mom had come upstairs. She was directing us where we're

...