Mother is bouncing back like a cat with nine lives from a major medical treatment of chemotherapy, radiation, and radical surgery. Her “recovery nest” has served her well. She still spends a lot of time there, but is now more and more her old self, ranging farther afield. She has shown decisiveness and fortitude in her fight against cancer– which was her attitude throughout. My sister Chrissy has been her constant companion and caretaker. The Highlands of the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River are the ever-mysterious wild and natural landscape in which her recovery has occurred.

Daddy’s recliner is in the picture. He passed away in 2003, taken from us swiftly and unexpectedly, right after having his morning coffee. I remember his hand working the lever on the side of the recliner. He sits there vividly in my memory, clear as a bell.