It is a wondrous thing to still have a parent. Granny is such a sweet and wise lady, and I always love it when she is brought in on your celebration of Appalachia. I love to look back and see how those parents kept us so grounded. While I was working so many hours, a drive with my dad was so refreshing. He noticed the little things like a duck swimming in a puddle, or the far off mountains where Sarvis had started to bloom. Kept me from sinking too far into the rat race.
My mom much like Granny continued to take such interest in everything. Even when she became almost housebound, we kept Hummingbird feeders and other bird feeders in her view from the window. Maybe a repeat, but my favorite thing was to get her in the car, and drive to where the garden was–maybe 20 feet. She would stand with her walker and look at the rows of beans and tomatoes, perhaps remembering back when she worked for hours in her own big garden. Her other favorite place was for me to take her along with a foldup chair to the cemetery where my dad rested. She would walk a few steps with her walker, then rest, until she finally could sit quietly beside the man she had spent most of her adult life with. She would gaze off into the beautiful West Virginia mountains, as she sat there looking at peace with her world. We can be assured they are always right there with us as we call on the memories of what they taught to help us through tumultuous times.
—PinnacleCreek May 2022
PinnacleCreek supported the Blind Pig & the Acorn almost from the beginning. She commented on every post and we often emailed back and forth.
It’s going on two years since she lasted commented. I’ve reached out a few times but heard nothing back.
Long time blog readers become part of my life and I always worry and wonder when folks disappear. Sometimes I hear word from a loved one that they passed away or in the recent case of B.Ruth she sent me a letter several years after leaving the blog to tell me she no longer had a computer.
PinnacleCreek left many heartwarming knowledge filled comments here on the blog over the many years she visited.
The last line of the comment I’ve shared from her today: We can be assured they are always right there with us as we call on the memories of what they taught to help us through tumultuous times seems appropriate for my wondering about PinnacleCreek. The sentiment is also helpful as I continue to grieve for Granny.
Last night’s video: Money Has Wings and Will Fly Away – Arie 6.
Tipper
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No one is ever old enough to lose their mama. Our hearts remain with you daily, Tipper, as you continue to forge your way forward without precious Granny.
I have enjoyed many of Pinnacle Creek’s comments on older blog posts. I love to peruse your blog and read many of the suggested articles when I can. I’m sorry you’ve lost touch without knowing how she is doing. I hope you will happen to hear from her soon.
I have been following along for a while and absolutely love everything you post. Reading your blog and the comments just warms my heart and gives me a sense of community. I have read everything about Appalachia I could get my hands on over the last 20 years. I didn’t grow up there (about 4 hours away in middle TN) but my daddy’s people did so all the sayings and ways remind me of how I was raised. I love all the old ways and gardening and everything you write about. I just wanted to thank you and tell you how very much I appreciate you and all the folks on here.
I am so thankful for all of my precious memories; especially the memories of my son, my parents and grandparents!!! Without these memories I just don’t think I could have managed all of the grief when they passed away. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of them!!!!!
Ironic that this post shows up today. My mama just passed away on Thursday and we are making plans to take her back to West Virginia to be buried next week. West Virginia is the home of my heart and always will be.
Catherine- I am so sorry for the loss of your mama. Please accept my sympathy and prayers.
God bless you Catherine. Losing your mom makes you feel orphaned and no one can take her place. I’m praying for you and your family.
Catherine, I’m so very sorry. God bless you! I will pray for you and your family.
God comfort you in this trying time in. Jesus name
I am a fairly recent newcomer to posting, but have been reading and watching videos for some time. I learn something from everyone on this blog. I am deeply touched by the sense of community and caring by Tipper and all the Acorns. It goes to show the fine and genuinely decent people of Appalachia who care for their neighbors. Thanks to all, you are a light to my days.
A beautiful ‘memory’ post of Pinnacle Creek, Tipper. No matter the length of time of silence between united hearts, they are always just a memory away.
Sorry you haven’t heard from your friend,It’s hard I know!Granny is still with you everyday.We love you all Tipper!
Hope all is well with PinnacleCreek. Does anyone know anything about Garland Davis? I miss seeing his comments.
Jo, I haven’t heard from Garland in a good long while. He sent me a goodbye email telling me his parkinsons was so bad he was going to have to give up his online pursuits.
Tipper,
It is so precious to regularly hear you sharing cherished moments and memorable events you had with your family and special friends.
I appreciate that you put such a high value on meaningful relationships- especially in today’s culture where it seems we have become a throwaway burden to the younger generation, and to the world at large
I guess it’s one of the many components that God implanted in our hearts and souls, that we innately desire to be center place in the hearts of our loved ones- That our words matter, and our lifetime of experiences and wisdom are taken seriously.
Thank you for reminding and inspiring all of us that people matter and little acts of kindness do not go unnoticed.
~KimO, in stormy Ohio
You and your family have touched a lot of hearts. Reminding us there are still good people in the world. Thanks, Tipper.
I am new to your blog but not to your videos. They both are a cool drink in the shade on a hot day – like sitting in the shade with a bit of a breeze. And love flows from it all! Peace in your grieving process – as one who had painful memories of mother, maybe you can find a wee bit of comfort in that your pain on her loss means that what you lost was very good.
I heard someone say once that the reason grief is so hard on us is because He did not design us to ever have to cope with death of a loved one–now some woulc argue and say ‘God is all knowing, so He knew we would fall and death would enter in’, but I choose to not overthink it and agree He DID NOT design us for death.
I think of you every day and walk this road of grief with you and your family. Cancer has too long dictated to your family a lot of what you have had to do the past several years beginning with Miss Cindy and now Papaw Tony….I pray for you all as again you walk down the C road this time with Matt’s dad and yet still grieving Granny. It makes the blessing of The Boys all that more sweet doesn’t it?
Please continue praying for me (for whatever reason home health never showed up with IV’s for me this week-I do not know if it is an insurance issue or inabilty to find a local pharmacy who could get the prescribed at home IV’s) God has stopped the endless vomiting and I am able to finally keep small amounts of food down, but still unable to drink enough to stay hydrated. The dehydration is causing my blood pressure to be so low I have not been able to take my normal heart/blood pressure pills in almost two weeks and my blood sugar is a constant battle to keep below 300 (when my body is sick my blood sugar reacts by being way too high) my heart is still having times of afib and yesterday COPD was causing it difficult to take deep breaths (perhaps the outside humidity and wind set that all in action)….why the hospital did not keep me on either trip to ER last week is a mystery to me and my home health nurses because I had enough wrong with me on either trip I should have been admitted. Tuesday I see a GI specialist who will set up a date for a scope which will perhaps then give at least some answers to all that has been ocurring the past two weeks.
Gaylia, I’m so sorry. I will keep praying for you!!
Gaylia, God bless you very much and doctors and all this being done for your healing in Jesus name
Wherever you are Pinnacle Creek, you are missed and thought about and since you mention it, I remember her too! I pray she is fine tucked back in the hollers of the mountain state where sunshine has to be pumped in…I put in my bedding plants or most of them yesterday and it’s the middle of May so they will make it or they won’t. I prayed over them and did I ever hurt as I got into the job. I busted my bare toes, felt rather defeated at times looking at puny tomato plants and wanted to cry a time or two. (I ate a piece of rum cake to keep going, but maybe it “lit me up” slightly and I felt like a jag. Anyway, I couldn’t help but feel in my heart when the time comes I can’t get out there in the garden dirt, I just don’t think I will live long after that. Everybody has a reason to live and the garden, my animals and bird watching are my reasons to live. In that garden somehow mommy and Bobby and memories of being a kid feeling safe and loved and full of a purpose all STILL gather there -be it in my mind. The little fella behind me bought some plants( his mommy and daddy did) and I told him today we will plant HIS plants. He ran and ran my chickens yesterday til he caught the littlest biddy because he thought I need to pet her…that little boy is a lot of joy to me. He comes and goes all day and I had forgotten just what fun kids are popping wheelies hollering “look at me! Was that a good one?” A yearling black bear ran through the yard headed quickly south into the mountainside. He had a rope of some type or a tie of some type on one back paw. In WV, a bear about a year came about 15 feet from my back door on his way to just getting tossed out by his mom. He was looking pretty sad but his fur was perfect cause he was still being taken care of by his mother. Well not anymore boys-that was then-this is now!!! I hate it they get run off but I’m telling you black bears are plentiful around here. The bear running yesterday had ate the night before in my cat food and I saw a stiff bristly hair I thought was a raccoons…My husband saw him at the end of the driveway but in the dark couldn’t make out what it was. I hope he moves right along into those hills where I look to for my Lord and His Glory..
Hey sweet Tipper! I may not post as often as I’d like to but know that I am right here reading your blog every single day! I love yall Robin
Dear Tipper,
I hope you’ll forgive me for stepping out of the shadows—I’ve always been more of a quiet reader, cherishing the beautiful words and stories others share. But something in your last post touched me so deeply I felt I had to speak.
That line—“We can be assured they are always right there with us as we call on the memories of what they taught to help us through tumultuous times”—brought tears to my eyes. It wrapped right around my heart because I was mostly raised by my precious grandmother, everyone’s “Nannie.” She was my everything. To this day, when I pull out her big old bowl to make dressing, potato salad, or sweet potatoe pies or dumplings and when I kneel at night to pray with my grandson, I feel her presence so strongly. In my saddest moments, I’ve even caught the faintest whisper of her old rose perfume drifting by, just for a second, like a gentle hug from heaven. She was the steady pivot of our whole family, the one who taught me to cook for a church full of people rather than just a few. I still haven’t learned how to scale it down. Thank goodness my husband love leftovers!
I’m so very sorry for the loss your family has carried. I know Grannie was the heart of everything. Life without a mother or grandmother changes us in ways we can hardly explain—we quietly take on pieces of them, their strength, their love, their ways of moving through the world, all woven deep into our spirits. Grief, I’ve come to believe, isn’t really about letting them go; it’s about keeping them alive inside us through memory, tradition, and the quiet ways we still feel them near. You and your family are doing that so beautifully, and it warms my heart to see how you honor Grannie and Ms. Cindy.
My Nannie grew up in a Tennessee orphanage and helped the sharecroppers who worked the school grounds. She assisted the cook and the laundry women, and oh, could she make a sweet potato pie that would make angels sigh. She ironed shirts so crisp they looked ready for a storefront window, and her sheets were so tight you really could bounce a quarter off them. But more than anything, she could call Jesus into the room in an instant and pray any darkness away. She left that gift to me as my grandson says, Henna, is what he calls me, “you can pray the monsters away”!
Now I’m the last of the elders in our family. Everyone else has gone on ahead. As I wander through life without them, I hold tight to their memories like treasures. Hearing your family speak in those Celebrating Appalachia videos brought my Nannie back to me so vividly—your voices carry that same warm, lilting rhythm I hadn’t heard since I was a little girl in Oklahoma. You’ve given me such a precious gift by stirring those sweet recollections back to life.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Be blessed, and highly favored, dear one.
With love and gratitude,
Tina Hayden
Tina—I sure hope you step out of the shadows more often. I really enjoyed your comment. I just love reading all the comments each day. I always check back a time or two and make sure I didn’t miss any. This is like a little family. I get so interested in everyone’s lives.
Dear Tina,
Thank you for the beautiful words and sentiments! They brought tears to my eyes, but also, such wonderful memories of my mother and grandmother. Like you, I don’t comment often, but I never miss a day of watching and listening to Tipper or reading her blog. She’s been like a gift from God to me for almost three years now! Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with all of us………I’m sure many others were touched by your words. Many blessings to you, J. (from Maine)
Tina, that was so beautiful! I hope you’ll comment more often. Your words say what’s in my heart. Thank you!
Absolutely beautiful, Tina! Thank you for sharing such lovely thoughts here. You are a true blessing. PS- Brenda, I do the same. The blog posts and comments have become a special community for me. We live quite rurally and it’s been hard to have as much in person contact with friends as I’d like for the last year or two and the blog and comments really enrich my life daily. ❤️
Such sweet memories. My Granny who was like a Mama to me, always had her sister with her. Her sister,my Aunt Betty, was 11 years her junior. They used to go park at the grocery store in their small town and watch people. Since I’ve gotten older it is a very interesting thing to do. They’d get a cold drink and watch just like it was a movie.
Tipper,
Thank you for sharing that beautiful slice of life from PinnacleCreek, along with the insight into your life as a blogger. I honestly don’t know how you do it all.
I do know that this one entry brought back the clearest memory of the way my Dad’s face lit up one spring day when he pointed out the Sarvice tree that was in bloom up on the ridge. It was a moment of simple joy for him, and a sharp single memory that brings joy for me, now.
I hope one day (soon) you’ll hear from your friend or someone who knew of her will reach out to you. As I think of things and not in a morbid way, but a practical way, of what I think my grandkids will need to know or be curious about, I jot little notes and put them in the large envelope in my filing cabinet that contains my will. It’s a sort of “love letter” to them that I hope will ease the pain of my no longer being here some day. I’m extremely close to them. Have been their entire lives and I want them to know the nearly indescribable joy they bring to me plus entertain them. They often…quite often lol tell me I’m something else!! You bet I am- haha. They all three know how much your channel and blog have come to mean to me. I’ll put a message for them about reaching out to you in 20 or 30 years as I plan on being quite “ripe on the vine” before taking my final bow. Your sweet, caring nature, Tipper, makes all of us who “know” you, feel like family. It’s a gift I’m so happy you were called to share♡
I miss her comments as well as others. This is a place where we become friends and family. If you know her name, have you tried searching? I assume you have. It would be nice if there was a way to keep up with people. In her later years my mother loved to ride to familiar places and would point out things and tell stories.
thank you for praying for me, the doctor gave me antibiotics once again, praise God for that, but I still can’t find a dentist that will accept Georgia Medicaid as a form of payment, please continue to pray and thank you very much, God bless you very much
Ihave read and enjoyed Pinnacle Creek’s comments. Some have really touched my heart like that one you reposted today. So many wonderful people in the world! Sharing your good thoughts and memories helps make today better for someone. Thank you all who take the time to comment and share. You have made a difference in my life.
I always loved reading comments from Pinnacle Creek too. It feels sad that she no longer writes and we don’t know the reason. I feel the same way about being fortunate to still have my mother. She doesn’t get out unless I go get her and take her somewhere, or one of my siblings come home. Then, she always wants to go to dad’s grave and take flowers and visit. She actually likes going to the grocery store too. Sometimes she sees old friends there, and talks a bit. The best thing is bringing her to my home to spend time with us and her great-grandchildren. They love to give her hugs, and she loves getting them. I like to cook for her, as she doesn’t enjoy cooking much anymore. She especially loves my chicken pot pie and lasagna. She feels so bad that she has to depend on me and my hubby for getting groceries and doctor appointments. I tell her that it is not an inconvenience, because I love her and she took care of me my whole life. Now it’s my turn to take care of her. I was born on her 19th birthday—and we have always celebrated together. Someday, it will be a day I miss her more than ever. So I am thankful to have her and love her and spoil her as much as possible. She has always been the perfect mama.
How incredibly special that you were born on your mama’s birthday, Brenda! I enjoyed reading your special comments very much today.
I find myself taking joy in smaller things. Since I retired I get to slow down and watch creatures and enjoy my flowers. My body is slower but I’m trying to keep up. I’m downsizing my flowerbeds because I can’t do them justice. I hope knowing your momma and daddy are watching over you makes you feel comforted. Blessings to your family!
PinnacleCreek wrote a beautiful memory of her Granny, her dad, her mom and beautiful West Virginia mountains. Tipper, I hope you hear from her soon and that she is okay.
Mercy me, Tipper, you have the characteristic that Solomon had; “largeness of heart”. I think that is an umbrella term – which among other things – means generosity but includes making and keeping friends. I’m thinking that is one of the keys to your success; that your followers know you care. You prove it often enough anyhow. I recall how Pinnacle Creek interested me with her comments and I wanted to figure out where she was so I could relate them to her landscape. I don’t think I ever figured out it was West Virginia. And as for memories, I was thinking this morning how they are something that grows more valuable through time even as they get further removed. Maybe that’s part of the reason childhood memories are among our best ones. You all know that for Ira and Woody and it will be awhile before they see it. That’s just one of many reasons kids need grand family members around them.
Tipper, I pray for you during this time. There is nothing like a momma’s love and the loss is so deeply felt. Granny was one of the best! I miss her little voice. It’s strange to grieve a person you’ve never met, but Granny felt like my granny. I know others felt like that too.
I was thinking of all the memories with my precious momma as I looked at the strawberries I’m getting ready to put up. She and I did everything together. I was so blessed to have her! The tears will roll as I process the berries. I can hear our conversations in my head and her gentle guidance. She had a way of making everyone think they could conquer the world with her sweet encouragement. I’m so thankful for a Savior that made a way for us all to be together again. Life is but a vapor.
May y’all find many blessings in your day! God bless!
What a precious comment, Debbie. You are a sweet aroma and I can tell you must be a lot like your dear mama.
I remember some of her comments. After my Daddy had his heart attacks and could no longer work, I made it a point to always ask him to ride with me if I was going to Anderson, SC and would always take him by the Saylors Crossroad area of the county to the graves and the area he grew up in. He loved pointing out things to me and telling me of things from his childhood. Now that I have a hard time with arthritis and can no longer get around or do many of the things I use to do it really gets me depressed. I also have to take a walker to get to the graves of my wife and daughter. Now my greatest joy is just spending time with my son and grandsons (my 3 boys.) we don’t have to be doing anything, just being with them. Now at 72 and with so many loved ones and friends that have passed on, I realize just how precious/valuable this time spent with them is. I feel like my turn is coming soon.
Randy, I loved taking our grandparents and parents on little road trips like that too. Such precious time together. I cared for my aunt that suffered with Alzheimer’s and I would drive her an hour away each month to where she was raised. She never remembered our previous trips and it was like a brand new trip each time. We would get her old car out (it was in pristine shape) and take off. I’d say ‘I was driving Miss Virginia’. We had so much fun! She would laugh like a little girl and tell me things about growing up. Precious.
Randy, I pray you have many more happy moments with your boys! God bless you! I always enjoy your comments!
I’m sorry you’ve not heard back from PinnacleCreek, it’s hard losing friends like that. I also like her comment that you highlighted, I hope to remember that as time goes on. My dad has ALS and was diagnosed with it back in March of this year after a hard year and a half of not getting better. At least we now have an answer and we have the help and support that we need. Still not easy.
I’ll pray for you and your daddy, Denise.
God bless your father, with deliverance from this, Lord bless him, heal and make well in Jesus name
God bless your father , with deliverance, healing and health in Jesus name
I’m sorry. I will pray for him and for you all!
Sweet memories and friend.