Crazy Lady! — Jane Leslie Conly

They changed the way he saw the world...

Maxine, short and stocky, with her dark glasses and strange hat and weaving walk, was called the crazy lady. Ronald, with his eyes open wide and his mouth always parted as if he were about to speak, was her son with special needs. Vernon and his friends would agitate them until they put on a kind of show.

But then Vernon gets to know them and see what their life is really like. He spends an afternoon helping them straighten out their ramshackle house, picking up their littered yard; and sits with Ronald while he watches Lassie and Mickey Mouse Club. And he begins to understand this mother's fierce love for her son, his own loss, and the unexpected strength he finds within this odd little family.