Joe Tennis
Mama turned 84 this week. And, on that birthday, she moved into an assisted living home.
That’s been on my mind all week, knowing that the lady who taught me to walk and talk can no longer walk. She also has a hard time recalling her life in order.
But, today, I want to thank this lady who taught me how to play dominoes, put peanut butter on a banana, look for early-morning deals on Black Friday – and always respect the power of God.
My mom is the reason I’m in the Tri-Cities. She grew up at Greeneville, Tennessee — just south of Bristol, Kingsport and Johnson City.
As a kid, I traveled about 1,000 miles, round-trip, each of the 10 times our family journeyed to Greeneville from 1969 to 1982.
Coming here was a vacation: We went to Tweetsie Railroad, Ghost Town in the Sky, Davy Crockett Birthplace State Park and the World’s Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee.
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I grew up with memories of going to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, where my now-disabled mother took me on the Sky Lift when I was three years old.
Mama also taught me her hometown’s claims to fame with ties to President Andrew Johnson and the Lost State of Franklin.
I came to love the Tri-Cities and decided to settle here.
In later years, too, from 1992 to 2009, she made about 15 trips to the Tri-Cities to see me.
Along the way, she discovered many of my favorite places, like taking a dog for a walk at Sugar Hollow Park, hanging out at the Town Park of Damascus, seeing a show at the Paramount Center for the Arts, meeting the wolves at Bays Mountain Park — and going to Dollywood.
Mama’s visits from Virginia Beach also had to include a trip to Dixie Pottery in Abingdon.
And while we never got to see the sands together at Hungry Mother Beach at the state park of Marion, Virginia, Mom said she went there in the 1940s and ’50s when she was a kid.
I owe what I’m doing on this page to my mom. She saw me writing novels in my room as a teenager and encouraged me to join the newspaper at Tidewater Community College. Within a year, I had an actual newspaper job. And, by the end of 1993, I was here in Bristol.
“I always thought it was funny how you moved to almost where I grew up,” she would say.
Surgeries and a stroke slowed Mom down — until she ultimately needed full-time care.
Still, while she can no longer be there for me, I know the joy and the gift of having a loving mother can never be fully explained.
Happy birthday, Mama!
And thank you.
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