Troublesome Things

Photo of Charlie Lucas (The Tin Man) and Kathryn Tucker Windham by Elizabeth deRamus

(Unless otherwise noted, the Kathryn Tucker Windham blog is written by her children, Ben Windham and Dilcy Windham Hilley.)


Life is full of troublesome things.


Mother had more than her share of troubles in the course of her long life, but she had a forge-ahead spirit that didn’t allow her to dwell on the dark parts.  When I was troubled by life’s little snags, I often called Mother for sage advice. Generally, she had wise words to head me in the right direction, but sometimes she just didn’t have any guidance to give.  In those rare circumstances, she would simply pause for a moment and say, “Well, you know, things have a way of working themselves out.”


And it’s true.  Rough patches almost always resolve themselves


I asked her one time where her optimism and resilience came from.  She told me it likely came from her mother, Helen Tucker, who wore her joy on her sleeve.  We called my grandmother “Heddie,” likely a child’s first attempts at pronouncing Helen.


When Mother was a little girl, Heddie woke her every morning with this verse:


“This day will bring some lovely thing.
I say it o’er with each new dawn.
Some bright adventurous thing
To hold against my heart
And treasure after it is gone.
And so I rise to greet the day
With wings upon my feet.”


And Mother lived her life by that directive.

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