This year marked five years since the passing of my grandmother. Of all my grandparents, I was especially close to Granny, who lived across the holler, as we say in the South, from our house. Her home was my refuge during hot Tennessee summers before my parents had air conditioning, an escape from a new baby brother, a place to bake cookies and play dress-up with costume jewelry and silk scarves. She was my baby-sitter, my reading teacher, my cooking instructor. She was my chauffeur, taking me shopping for a new school wardrobe, to my best friend's house or to the sunrise service at...