February 21, 2016
Chitter – ETSU Appalachian Conference 2015
Back before Christmas Paul helped Chitter record the old Bill Monroe song Lonesome Moonlight Waltz for Pap’s special Christmas DVD. I asked her where she learned the song fully expecting her to say she learned it at the John C. Campbell Folk School since that’s where she’s learned most of her fiddle tunes.
Chitter surprised me by telling me she learned it from Youtube.
I said “What you just stumbled across it and decided to learn it?” She surprised me again by saying “No. I’ve heard that song all my life.” I said “Well I don’t know where I was at when you were hearing it.”
I’m feeling like a waltz today so I thought of the song and decided to share it for my weekly Pickin’ and Grinnin’ in the Kitchen Spot.
Many of you have been asking after Pap. He is doing pretty good. If you asked him yourself he’d give you his usual answer of very well. I think answering someone’s inquiry about how you’re doing with very well may be an Appalachian thing. Sort of like saying you’re doing as well as common when someone asks. He sometimes says that too.
How is Pap really doing? I guess you’d say it’s complicated. He has had a few very very good days since his week long stay in the hospital. He’s had a few not so good ones too.
In typical Pap fashion he says he’s going to Praise the Lord for His mercy in giving him a pain free day even if it’s his last one.
Years ago when Papaw Wade (Pap’s father) received the news that there were several suspicious spots on his lungs he politely, but forcefully, said no thank you to the various treatments the doctors could have started. He never even let them look further than seeing the spots.
Papaw Wade went around to every house in the holler and said his goodbyes. Then he went home to wait until death received him. He seen all of us again during his sickness-seen us many times over, but somehow it was important for him to visit each abode and say farewell before going home for the last time.
By no means does Pap have Papaw Wade’s readiness to meet his maker, but he has decided he’ll just ride out the rest of his travels here on earth at home. No more hospitals, no more procedures. Unlike Papaw Wade, Pap still feels like getting out and about every now and again. Just this week him and Granny took off gallivanting over to Blairsville GA. I worried about them every second they were gone like they were 2 teenagers let out into the world for the first time.
A great group of palliative care folks have been checking on Pap a few times a week to make sure he’s comfortable and has every thing he needs. The changes made to his medicines while he was in the hospital seems to have made a real difference in his overall situation and we’re all so very grateful for that.
It was 3:00 a.m. one morning this week when Granny called saying I better come. Oh Pap was in a bad way when I arrived breathless from running down the hill in the dark of the night. I used all the tools we’ve been supplied with by the Palliative care team…seemingly to no avail.
Pap wrestled with that horrible pain till I felt so helpless. I doctored I paced I called the nurses and along with Granny I helped Pap stand upright which is the only position he seems to get relief from.
By nearly daylight Steve and Paul came and they held Pap upright in front of the heater so he could warm. Finally that horrible pain began to recede back into the darkness where it belongs.
Between then and now he’s had all good days with no pain and high spirits. As Pap says this heart business will keep you guessing.
I love the video above because Paul and Chitter sound good! But mostly I love it for the same reason Pap does: the way Paul handles the arch top with such ease and the way Chitter looks so cute in her glasses making her silly faces with her hair all piled on her head like a small girl from a storybook.
—February 21, 2016
Pap’s been on my mind a lot lately. He usually is this time of the year. When I start planning our garden I always wish I could ask him about this or that. Also, he likely comes to mind because February and March were the months leading up to his death in April.
Last week we played for the funeral of one of Pap’s dear friends J.C. McCoy. Paul and Chatter sung one of Pap’s songs “I’ll be Home” because the family requested it. The other song we did was “Where the Soul of Man Never Dies.” Everyone said J.C. would have loved Chitter’s fiddling.
As I sat and listened to the preachers I thought about men like Pap and J.C. Men who were strong for their Lord, family, and country. I studied on how they went about their lives never realizing how they influenced not only their immediate families but the larger community around them too.
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This meant so much to me! Thank you for sharing! I loved the waltz and memories. My father died last February and is with the Lord. This remembrance of your Dad means so much as I just found you last March. Archives are wonderful and I love reading the other comments as well.
I am without words to speak! Pap memories usually leave me speechless. Here I am, again,
pondering…. life, love and the profound presence of Pap! He is always with us.
I really enjoyed today’s post. I’m praying for God to comfort you and bring a sweet smile to your face and to your heart every time you think of your precious Pap, Tipper. 🙂 I’ve been thinking a lot about my Daddy too. My parent’s 50th anniversary would’ve been in March, and when I see the Jonquils start to bloom it makes me think of them because it was their anniversary flower. I miss them both very much.
I love you Tipper, and words can’t express the sense of loss when we have lost our parents. The world is not the same for us anymore. I loved my Daddy and Mama very much and I miss them too.
I want to say one more thing my daddy died on Jan. 21, 1991 and my mother exactly 20 years to the day Jan. 21, 2010, my daughter Sept. 15, 2012 and my wife April 15, 2021 along with many other family members that I dearly loved. I miss and still grieve for all of them. Many times I have been told by well meaning people, you still have good memories of them, what they don’t understand is for some of us, those memories cut like a knife and are painful. A dear older friend of mine said this to me after my wife’s death, “We know the ones like my wife that were Christians are in a better place and are no longer suffering, it is their loves ones they leave behind that are now suffering and in pain”
You are blessed to have such wonderful memories of Pap. I know he would have been one of my favorite people! Enjoyed the waltz. Your family is so gifted. Take care and God bless ❣️
Beautiful song and a very sweet post. I lost both of my parents in March, so this time of year gets me to thinking also. I do have the promise that I will see them again. I often think of the song, Precious Memories. Have a blessed day everyone!!
Thank you for this post, Tipper. I miss reading about your Dad’s almost daily doings in your blog. You mentioned him pretty much everyday from the first day you started blogging. I checked in everyday just as much to see what your Dad was doing or saying – his wonderful wisdom! – as I did to read everything else you wrote about. I have missed him sorely since he went home to be with the Lord. I am so grateful for the videos you have of him on your family’s you tube channels, and to look back on old posts on this blog and remember when I first read the older posts and what I was doing and thinking at the time. I know – I am rambling this morning. So many things you would write back then that really fit my day at that time, his words were just what I needed to hear! Funny how that happened so much. His words and music has always touched me as if he said them just for me. Always at the perfect time when I needed to hear them. And, still, I will listen to one of his songs on any given day now and it is exactly what I need to hear at that moment today even. I am sorry to hear about JC McCoy passing. He was someone I have also read about in your past posts. I will be praying for his family. Thank you for posting this beautiful song with Paul and Katie. I enjoyed listening to it again!
Donna. : )
March 30 of this year will mark 20 years since my father went home to be with the Lord. It seems like only yesterday that he was still with us. Time surely does fly. I greatly miss him, as I am sure that you miss your father. We will see them again, I have no doubt.
Well Tipper, I’m rarely at a loss for words, but after reading excerpts from your 2016 blog and all going on with your dad in pain, etc. all I can seem to muster is I AM SO SORRY AND IF I COULD TAKE IT OFF YOU, I WOULD. May you be comforted with all the comfort you give us every single day! May the Lord bless you and keep you! You’re in my heart today!
Beautiful memories and also a lovely waltz tune by Paul and Chitter.
The song is beautiful and wonderfully played, thank you for sharing it. I too remember, 2016 is when my twin sister passed away, went to be with Jesus. God and our memories sustain us God bless and comfort you and some glad morning, we will all be reunited!!!! ❤❤
What a lovely post! Everything about, a Waltz! My husbands grandmother taught us to Walt and we still do every now and again, if we hear a country song at a wedding that’s is a Waltz. Grandma Marceline told me to start back on my left foot, and just march slowly, from one foot to the other foot, counting: 1, then 1,2,3 (and stay on your top toes she said.) I also love how you describe your dads last days. What a wonderful person, how blessed were you to get him of all dads! And to know you’ll be with him again one day, for eternity, that surely eases your pain of missing him now. Happy Tuesday from East Central Illinois. I’m back to working 12 hr days tomorrow, my daughter inlaw is going back to work after her maternity leave! Being Mammal Lorie is most definitely the highlight of my life!
I think there’s a sermon in the last paragraph, to me you are either witnessing for the Lord or for the Devil everyday by the way you live your life and and the influence you have on the people you are around during your life. There is a poem “The Dash “ that goes along with this. On your tombstone there will be two dates , the date you were born and the date you died with a dash mark between them. The poem speaks of what you did during the dash mark. In my life, I have been blessed by the influence of many, many good people both men and women , all of them just simple, plain, common salt of the the earth people . Some of the first one that come to mind are both mine and my wife’s parents and grandparents. The grandparents for both of us were all sharecropper farmers. From the things Tipper has wrote about Pap, he and my father in law were as much alike as two peas in a pod.
Wonderul memories…thanks for sharing. God Bless
The tune from Chitter and Paul was beautiful. My heart goes out to you as I read your post about your beloved Pap. I understand. My mom passed in January 2016. It’s hard not to think about them in our daily lives and miss them deeply. Just remember God’s promise that those who believe and follow Christ our Lord, will see their loved ones who have were redeemed again in heaven. That promise gives me peace. Your Pap left a great legacy and I know your proud of that. Hugs from across the state.
I can say nor do anything but cry. Lord knows. Love y’all!
It’s been years since I heard that lovely old waltz. I’m so glad you mentioned it and posted it. Your memories of Pap are sweet and tinged with longing. I too, have memories of loved ones who suffered to the end but found a happy release in Jesus.