I’ve always felt that our family was, somehow, blessed. All down through the years I witnessed so many other families struggle, through loss of loved ones, financial hardship, violence, and discontent within their members, pain upon pain, while my family, though far from perfect, was happy, healthy, close, loving, secure. Every time someone I knew passed away, a neighbor, a distant cousin, I couldn’t help but take note of the fact that our family had never gone through that. We had never lost anyone close. I couldn’t help but wonder, “Why? Who are we that we are so blessed, that we are spared from pain while others must suffer?” Though thankful, I almost felt guilty!
My childhood, though simple, was beautiful. We grew up with our family members all very close, within walking distance. My Mamaw lived just across the yard. We were there as much as we were home. Her door was always open. She cooked a large dinner every Sunday for her ‘childern’. This included her children, her children’s children, their children, and on and on. My aunt and uncle (Dubby, my dad’s brother) lived the next house up the holler. We were always there as well. He taught us to hammer nails, shoot a bb gun, and loved us like a second daddy. We played all over our neighborhood, throughout the hills and hollers. Our neighbors were all good people. There was no danger. To this day, 65 years later, our holler is still like that. Most have lived here since I was a young girl, and the new people seem to be hand-selected, vetted, chosen. We’ve never had anything stolen, and my family still lives in the same 3 houses, plus my son and his family, who now live just above Dubby’s house.
I was 26 before I ever experienced the pain of losing someone close. My grandmother, who lived across the yard, died at 91. At 65, I have now lost both my grandmothers, my dad, my uncle Dubby and aunt Jan, but I had them all with me for many happy years. I still realize, daily, how very blessed I am. I now live in my Mamaw’s little house. My grandchildren live within walking distance, and they, along with myself and every member of my family, are healthy, happy, and whole to this day.
There is something about this land that my family has owned for more than a century. My grandmother farmed this land and raised 6 children here, alone, during the depression. Her husband left her for another woman. I have concluded that he just wasn’t one of the chosen. He did not belong here.
A few years back a thought struck me, while studying this little sculpture titled ‘Fully Surrendered’. I had made it in college and kept it displayed on my grandmother’s bible on my mantel because it reminded me of her. “This is why my family is blessed. We were built on a Godly foundation from the very beginning. My grandmother prayed over this land and her family for 91 years, and we are the beneficiaries of her legacy.”
“The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and He shall bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.”
-Deuteronomy 28:8
