Back Home to Cherokee

Here we are again!  I've never lived here, but coming to my mom's house is like coming home.  So many good times here.  As we climb up and down the last mountain and get nearer, memories rise up wispy and fleeting in my mind, like the smoke on the mountains. I think of the time we introduced our girls to family, first Arielle, then Liana.  Our South Carolina land fiasco that devastated us, but still brought us together with family who helped us get through it.  So many long talks with my mom in her living room.  Sharing life crossroads with my brothers. And I always go back to that memory of my first visit here alone when I was falling apart.  It was fall, cold and cloudy, the mountains ominous like the direction I was heading.  My sister Kelly, so young then, drove me all around on these steep roads, she and my mom reminding me of who I was--loved and accepted no matter what.  I will be forever grateful to them both for what they did for me on that trip.

Finally today we pull up in Grandma's gravel driveway and there she is on the ramp welcoming us once again!  The girls run up for hugs and we come into her peaceful little home for lots of talk and good food.  Home is where you are loved, isn't it?  We talk on into the evening and Kelly and her daughter and granddaughter arrive and there is more fun and laughter.  I feel an even deeper connection to my sister now that we are older and have shared so much through the years.

The next day we visit the old tourist shops in town and remember other vacations.  We stroll through the Mountain Farm Museum at the base of the majestic Smokies and learn how the white settlers came to the area and lived.  My people living in this beautiful place, sheltered by towering mountains and refreshed by cool streams.  Later my niece Alex and her boyfriend take us to the Oconaluftee Indian Village, an outdoor living history museum and we hear lectures on how the Cherokees lived on this land in the 1800's before their removal.  Again, my people, the ancient settlers.  I'm glad to have time with my niece, this little girl all grown up, so much a part of every visit to North Carolina.  She has a child of her own, an adorable child bringing much joy to our family. I think of how one day my daughters might bring their own children here. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the evening we take our traditional trip into Sylva to visit "Grandma's Walmart."  Yes, we have one right down the street from us in Pennsylvania, but it's not the same as Grandma's!  Then over to eat at Ryan's.  We fill our plates many times, not just for the food, but to prolong our good time here.