My grandmother never had a bounce in her step the entire time I knew her. How arresting, then, to see this photo of her for the first time—beautiful, romantic, sexy, even:
No, wait, that first image is Miley Cyrus at the Grammys 2024. In case you haven’t seen this—everyone should!
Miley Cyrus, "Flowers" at the Grammys
But back to Gramma Cannie. I think often of her very stoic exterior that hid a fabulous sense of humor and a great love for her family. Here is a story about her that should have enlightened me to what her attitude about sex might have been, though she would never in a million years have told me about it.
Upon hearing that our sister-in-law was expecting her seventh child (in a struggling household), my sister, recently married to Robert, blurted out, “If that was me and Robert, I’d sleep at one end of the hall and I’d put him at the other end.”
Gramma quickly retorted, “Yeah, and I’d lay salt in the hall to see who made the fastest tracks.”
This no-nonsense attitude toward sex might be expected of an old mountain woman, unless you know, as I do, that sex is rarely spoken out loud in the old Appalachian culture. Yet when I look at her photo, above, what I remember is that Gramma never spoke of her husband, Arcemus––Cemie, he was called––with anything but approval. Cemie was an excellent carpenter. Cemie loved ham. Cemie was so tall. Cemie loved to play with his five daughters and he was proud of his only son. Cemie owned one of the first cars in the county. Back before he lost everything they owned, but that wasn’t his fault. His fault was loving his half-brother enough to sell pieces of their land to bring the brother home from far across the globe. Again. And again. And again. The brother never came home.
I’ve just told you two stories, one about my grandmother, and another about the grandfather I never met. In these two stories are the secrets behind her photograph.
The woman she was when she was eighteen, innocent and yet a willing participant. The woman she was for the forty years after his death, thinking back to their time together. And the grandfather who was kind and generous, playful, and a hard worker, but not clever enough to see into his brother’s deviousness.
What characters are you working on and what attributes can you reveal through a short, carefully worded scene? What details would you include to get at their character without using adjectives?
That is the heart of story-telling.
National Poetry Month is Busy! Then back to finishing up the offbeat romance novel I’m writing.
Next up: An appearance at Charis Books & More in Atlanta on April 25th (above). Get free event tickets here: Free Tickets.
Also, I’ll be in my hometown––Greenville, SC––on Saturday, April 27, from 10 a.m. at M. Judson Booksellers, 130 S. Main Street, to sign copies of Weaver’s Knot. Bring your purchased copy or get a new one there. They make great gifts!
I love to hear YOUR voice!