North Carolina

She lost her mother at 13, leaving her and an 8-year-old brother. She had both her father and her paternal grandmother after that, I guess back then it was tough for people to keep in touch. She eventually became a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse right across the road from her grandmother. She eventually married my grandfather who had served in WWI and had 4 kids, a girl and 3 boys and my father was the eldest boy. And then my grandfather died quite suddenly in 1940, leaving her with those 4 kids, when my Dad was 12 and his youngest brother was 3. That's the thing, she experienced so much, but always persevered.

I was the eldest grandchild, and she was always close with my Dad - and with me. She was the only one in my family who let me drive when I was learning, she was the one responsible for my being sent to summer camp and then to boarding school, but then I always blamed my Dad rather than her. She was always a world traveler, visited places as far away as India and Kenya with her friend whose son-in-law was building dams there - IIRC.

She had a friend and former neighbor who she had traveled with who moved to the retirement community in Black Mountain. So she'd spend summers at home up here (Northeastern New York) and winters in NC. By then I could drive, so my uncle would fly down and drive up with her and I was the one who drove down with her and flew back. I certainly missed her, but I really liked Black Mountain, even thought of moving there myself. And after her older friend died, she decided to move there permanently. And I still visited either with my cousin or my mother. And she outlived 3 of her 4 children. She volunteered to speak at the service for my Dad, so I had to volunteer to speak, too.

However, when she wrote me (she always wrote me, even at camp and boarding school) that she'd joined this local peace group, Black Mountain had a "sister town" in the USSR and they needed 17 to make the trip so she asked me to go with her - and I thought she'd lost her mind. But I could never say no to my Nana and I joined the group - though I had a severe panic attack on the plane - New York to Helsinki and Helsinki to Moscow. Soviet planes could not land in the US.

And of course it turned out to be the trip of a lifetime, they were a wonderful group, almost all senior citizens, experienced world travelers and dedicated to peace. We traveled all over, Moscow, Soviet Georgia (we were supposed to go to Kiev, but Chernobyl happened), Sochi and then-Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) both seeing the sights and meeting with other peace groups. And the groups we met up with were even more dedicated to peace, having experienced the horrors of WWII fought on their own land and there were statues dedicated to peace all over, even museums in the schools so that the children would learn and never forget. I still remember one older lady who had been a nurse during WWII and said "please, when you go back, tell your president that we want peace!" *sigh* And the trip to our "sister town" 2 1/2 hours up in the Caucasus Mountains was the high point of the trip. We even brought greetings from President Reagan to the town's mayor - turned out that the wife of one of our group (president emeritus of Warren Wilson College) was first cousins with VP George H.W. Bush.

And of course Reagan wasn't at all popular there since he was so tough on President Gorbachev. I once took a walk with 3 of the ladies around Sochi (we stayed there since it was the closest city to our "sister town&quot and once of them had her purse strap break so I spotted what looked like a shoemaker's sign - but when the older lady there learned that we were American, she said "Reagan!" and spat on the ground. So Evelyn, the one with the purse, explained that we much preferred President Carter, the lady warmed right up and not only fixed Evelyn's purse, but I took a photo of them with their arms around each other.

Anyway, sorry to go on, but that's my tie to the residents of Black Mountain. And whenever I went back, I met up with some of for lunch, dinner and once we had a reunion when I visited. With one exception, they were all a few decades older than I was, but I really loved them all and they accepted me. My particular friend, who I often went exploring with, was the eldest of the group, a few months short of 90. He was also widowed and took an interest in my grandmother - but she'd send me instead. That was Paul, an ordained minister, president emeritus of a Pennsylvania college who had been the head of the YMCA international based in Geneva - until he was forced to retire at 65 in 1962! That's when he came to Black Mountain to run Blue Ridge Assembly, the YMCA Southern Conference Center.

And he ended up finally getting together with my grandmother, my extended family loved him, and I got to meet his entire extended family in 1997 when his entire family - 2 daughters and 10 grandchildren - got together from all over the country for his 100th birthday at Blue Ridge Assembly, when we could pin him down, that is.

I lost my grandmother in September 1998, just a week short of her 98th birthday. My cousin, Paul and I were with her. And then Paul passed away on the next Christmas Eve, after having the traditional stew at the retirement community. He was 101 1/2. And my cousin and I were there for his service, too, an international YMCA gathering in January of 1999 - as were the remaining members of our peace group. We took a photo of the 6 of us who remained from our 1986 trip.

Like I said, sorry to go on, but those were friends I got to know and love in Black Mountain - and why it's such a special place to me.