Pacific dusk

tomorrow unveils

that worry had been squeezing

the breath from our sails

The Porcelain Nurses

The in-patient service at Plateau Mental Health Center is no more. It was an out-post that covered 13 rural counties of Tennessee half-way between Nashville and Knoxville, and north to the Kentucky border. This was an underserved region according to the National Health Service Corps. The nurses were used to having limited weekend medical coverage. Often the highest trained staff person for long weekends was a licensed practical nurse. There was no timely lab testing, no EKG machine, nor security muscle yet these hardy angels of compassion could manage the psychotically agitated patient, the alcoholic in near DT’s, and comfort those in despair.
This T-shirt was designed in their honor. Due to a joke played on them one weekend they (good naturedly) referred to themselves thereafter as “Porcelain Nurses”. Y’all were the best. Thanks. -James

Lonely in a crowd

The big city is smothering to a country boy. Daniel Boone was quoted as saying he had to move farther west every time a new settler got within 20 miles of his homestead. These 4 young people have each other...yet the city is distant, resistant to becoming familiar.

Mariachi

From a hotel in Puerto Vallarta... Mariachi is a folk musical style that originated in the state of Jalisco, Mexico

for Sara, the genealogy junkie

Sara never got to enjoy the last post about great, grand mother's 100th anniversary. It shouldn't have mattered that much. She was only related to Mom Jackson by marriage. But, of all people who are positive spin-meisters, Sara was in a league of her own. She promoted everyone's qualities. She loved to tell anecdotes...then told and retold. Mom Jackson's life story had elements of an epic poem but probably was no different in scope than countless other widows in Appalachia, or anywhere for that matter. What was special about this tale was that it was our heritage… our ancestor whose survival was a key in the family cow-path. Sara was a genealogy junkie. As said above, she never saw the previous post about Mom Jackson. But she would have loved it. (predictably, anything I did in her eyes was awesome) More about that later. -James