Life Among the Savages

Re-read: just as delightful the second time ‘round. Highly recommended as a refreshing antidote to perfect-mommy books and blogs, for Jackson admits to mistakes, fears, annoyances, anger, and the desire, to paraphrase my grandmother, to throw up her hands and run out the back door.
Grandma's full saying bears documentation in this context, for Jackson could have said it herself. When the family would have her at wits' end, Grandma would threaten to throw up her hands and run out the back door, and not stop until she reached Dix Hill.
Dix Hill was local slang for the Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Hospital.