Home – Such a Beautiful Word

“The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.” — Maya Angelou

Sorry to be late with this post. Sometimes Wednesday sneaks up on me and right on past especially when I’m trying to find the words for a new story and facing a deadline zooming toward me.  But these words for a new post here are fun to write too.

Today we are heading back to the Appalachian Mountains, this time with Mira in The Song of Sourwood Mountain. This scene is where Mira gets the first sight of her new home with Gordon in Sourwood. She’s still worried about this new life she’s facing and how she will manage in a place so different from what she knew in the city. But she does wish for somewhere to call home.

Home. Such a beautiful word. And not one that Mira had really known since she left her mother’s house seven years ago. She had rented accommodations that were never really home, even Miss Ophelia’s rooms, a place she liked. She had always considered herself a guest instead of belonging there. Would that be the way she felt here too?

Everything was so different. She couldn’t imagine belonging in a log cabin, miles from any town. Other cabins were scattered along the little valley. Smoke did rise from their chimneys to drift up into the blue sky. A few white clouds floated over the hills.

Even though it wasn’t that late in the day, the sun was beginning to dip below the tree-lined hills to the west. Night would come early here.

Night. She wouldn’t think about that yet.

She had leaned into Gordon’s warmth through the long ride and let him cushion the bumps for her. They had shared Miss Stella’s ham and biscuits and fried apple pies, with John eating the most. Mira thought that would have made Miss Stella smile. The boy looked so young, more like one of her students back in Louisville instead of someone ferrying people over these rough hills. But perhaps he was older than he looked. He had been ready with his sly remarks about them being newlyweds.

She might as well get used to that. No doubt Gordon’s church people would have plenty of teasing remarks for him and many questions about her. After all, he’d left here last week a single man. He couldn’t have given them any warning about returning with a wife. Everything was so sudden. Perhaps too sudden.

No sense thinking about that. Better to think about her new home. The cabin might be cold when they got there, but it would warm soon enough with a fire kindled in its fireplace. Where she would be expected to cook. That thought awoke new worries. What in the world would she cook?

Water would have to be carried from somewhere. A well, perhaps. Or a spring. Cool water filtered by mountain rock. That would be better than water from the creek she could see behind the cabin, but that creek would be the only running water in Sourwood. The cabin would have no water closet. Was there an outhouse? The school would need an outhouse. She would insist on that.

One thing at a time. No need to pile up problems that might or might not be there. Well, people did have to eat. A person did have to have water. Did need a water closet or outhouse.

Other people lived in this community. They managed. She took a deep breath. She had faced challenges before. She would face them now.

This is the last post for you to leave a comment to get an entry in my Appalachian book giveaway. The winner will have their choice of an autographed copy of one of my autographed books with an Appalachian setting. You must be at least 18 to enter. If you’ve left a comment on any of the other posts about the Appalachian stories during this giveaway chance and leave another comment here, you’ll get an additional entry. Deadline to enter is midnight EST on Saturday, March 7, 2026. I’ll contact the winner by email and announce the winner on my post on Sunday, March 8th.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these dips into the mountain settings for my stories. I plan to share a short scene from my upcoming book, A Chance for Kallie Mae, on Sunday’s post. That is, if I don’t let that day sneak past me too. Maybe if it tries, I can grab it before it disappears into next week. The time changes Sunday which will make everything seem to speed up.

What do you think would be the biggest challenge if you had to step back into a time without the modern conveniences we now take for granted?

P.S. Coming soon I will be taking part in the Christian Fiction Spring Scavenger Hunt. It’s a great way to discover new authors and books that might grab your interest. Plus, there will be giveaways at most every stop on the hunt and a chance for the big prizes if you join in the fun of collecting all the clues in the hunt. More about that in a couple of weeks.