Nora Maude Mitchell was my maternal grandmother. We called her ‘Granny’ and a better woman could never have existed. She had no material possessions but what she had she gave unselfishly to assist my mother in raising me and my seven siblings.
Granny was pure Appalachian. This meant she could grow an amazing vegetable garden, butcher and clean animals for meat, preserve food for winter, take care of the workhorse, make her own dress patterns from newspaper, sew our clothes, find the best blackberry patches, quilt and make scratch biscuits like no other.
She also did most of our ‘doctoring’ including making poultices [a soft, moist mass of plant material applied to the body and kept in place with a cloth] to wrap wounds and clear chest colds and making cough syrup from Four Roses whiskey, lemon and honey.
She often sent us to the woods to pick wild herbs that she would make into medicine. She was a woman used to hard work and rough times but also knew how to enjoy simple pleasures of life.
I remember clearly one early summer morning walking with her past the strawberries she grew behind the smokehouse. My bare feet were soaked in the morning dew. I was moaning for something now not important. She pointed out toward the brilliant red berries that glistened in the morning sun.
She said to me, “We may not have fine things like you see on TV. But we’ve been blessed. Look at our diamonds in the dew. You could easily walk right by and miss them… and what a treasure you’d miss if you did.”
I have often thought of the wisdom in Granny’s words. Now I realize that the real diamonds are the people we come in contact with each day.
By not acknowledging the value of each person how many treasures have remained hidden, even to them? How many times how we miss the ‘diamonds in the dew?’
Sinclair Community College is full of hidden Diamonds in the Dew. The hallways, classrooms and campus is full of them. You are probably one. The staff of Student Affairs wants to find you, help you polish yourself, believe in your value and witness you succeed to the Big Room and beyond.
Nora Stanger is the Appalachian Outreach Coordinator for the Appalachian Outreach department of Student Affairs.
Nora Stanger
Contributing Writer