If I were asked to name one characteristic about mountain folks that I believe set us apart from all others in the world that answer would be simple. It is the manner in which we view our families. My world view changed in 1971 because my parents made a decision to pack up and move from city life in Warren Michigan to mountain life in Arjay, Kentucky. To be more exact, my parents loaded up the Pontiac Bonneville and down Interstate 75 we came. Leaving behind family members who years before had also made the journey, as my parents did, from Stinking Creek to Detroit for jobs.
The City of Detroit has remained home for many including my cousins, Gobel and Sally Hale. Now I don’t have the word space in this column to explain first cousin, and second cousins once and twice removed, but that’s what I love and admire about mountain folks. Fact is most of us in the mountains view our families all on the same level. We don’t care if they are 3rd Cousins or 4th Cousins, we claim them and generally speaking, we are proud to call them all family. That makes us very unique as a culture and it also provides us with a rich history of individual and family accomplishments to share with others when we explain where we are from and who are family is.
Gobel was raised at Mills, Kentucky on Stinking Creek and Sally was raised on Road Fork. Simply turning left at the Dewitt Baptist Church in Knox County and you will drive straight to her family home place. She was born on Monday, August 5, 1935. Her parents were Garrett and Lena Allen and she two sisters, Carmen Allen and Shirley Hampton and one brother, Rex Allen. Gobel and Sally made Warren Michigan home and they added three girls to a growing list of cousins: Denise (Centers); Elizabeth (Bay); and Sally (Pauls);
On Thursday, April 1, 2010, Sally entered into eternal life leaving behind a large extended family to support her family and to morn her loss. Sally and Gobel would have been married 58 years in May. There were partners on a successful team as parents and as husband and wife. Sally had always encouraged me. She enjoyed being a part of people’s lives and she believed that you could be successful in life no matter where you were from or how hard “times were” when you were born. Sally was someone that was proud of her heritage and while Michigan was home, in her heart Kentucky was home too.
To quoted Edith Mason Cawood from Middlesboro, Ky: “Love leads the way; Love soothes the soul; Love marks the path; Love sets the goal; Love casts out fear and love makes us brave; Love is the ship that scans the wave; Love brings sweet peace; Love makes us calm; Love brings us joy; Love gives a song; Love is the theme for life’s brief story; Love is the way from earth to glory;”
Of all the things we could demonstrate in our lives love must be king. As a Christian the most important characteristic must be love. 1 Corinthians 13: says now abides faith, hope and love and the greatest is love. Being able to share His love with people is a great honor and being able to tell His story of love with our family is a privilege we should not neglect. Honoring our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and long list of great cousins that grows with every generation should be clearly marked with our story of heritage and faith.
I believe every road and every turn of life is an opportunity for each of us to smile, make a difference in the lives of others and contribute a verse to the powerful play of life. One day when I have passed into eternal, I pray my story will include the fact that He Touched Me, and that I sang How Great Thou Art in tribute to the mercy and the Amazing Grace He showed me.
Until then
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