The Wild, Wonderful Women of West Virginia

Sounds like the set-up for a joke, right? Joke if you must but rest assured we've heard them all...hell, we wrote most of them. Consider this instead, an ode to all of the women from my home state and the impact they've had on my life to date.

I have been blessed throughout my existence to have been surrounded by women. The women in my life from West Virginia are in a class all their own, however. The women in my family were powerful women, not in a physical or social status sort of way, but in their ability to take care of their families through the worst and most trying of times. These were no shrinking violets...they forged ahead against all odds. Frequently, they overcame these odds and in other cases such as my sister Mona's they lost the battle but only after a helluva fight.

My female friends from the Mountain State are a force of nature as well. They are businesswomen, entrepreneurs, artists, musicians, mothers, daughters, aunts and sisters...sometimes all in one package. They feel deeply, are outspoken and opinionated and refuse to simply melt into the background...they are front and center.

These women altogether are the Circle of Life for me in West Virginia. They are family members and friends, both here and no longer with us. Some are mothers of my friends, who then became friends and mothers to me as well....like Kristy's Mom Mary Alice, pictured at right and Barb, Kaki's mother who was also one of my favorite teachers. Sometimes, other fellas got the honor of being in the orbit of these women as well...such as in the pic at right featuring my old college roommate Rodney and our beloved Coonie. Some of these women have moved away as I have, some have passed away. Despite sometimes heartbreaking setbacks, these women forge on. They may be dealing with stress and pain, physically or emotionally, and still they rally. Some of these women will move Heaven and Earth just to help a friend or keep their families afloat and in some of these cases, against impossible odds. Just this past week, I witnessed tears of frustration, tears of grief, tears for one's own child and tears of self-doubt....and yet no matter whatever personal strife any of these women were experiencing, they still found time to comfort me.

Oh, yes, there is food as well....from the Giant Chocolate Chip cookies Kristy baked to welcome me to the wonderful food Kaki helped prepare to the treasured recipes of my Aunt Bonnie. They are consummate hosts as well. I shared food moments with women in a range of ages this past week....from the home-baked cookies made from my grandmother's recipe by Aunt Kate to watching the school-age offspring of my high-school classmates take a cooking tutorial.

Then there's the laughter. At my sister Mona's funeral a few years back, I spoke of her laugh. It was a beautiful laugh, I recounted, a laugh passed through generations of Rinehart women. My Mother possesses it and shared it most often and most loudly with her sister, my Aunt Bonnie. Bonnie's girls, Debbie and Dayle Ann, certainly own it and I'm sure have passed it on to their next generation. My friends can laugh with relish as well...Kristy and I have had giggle fits since we were four years old; Kaki or Connie and I can reduce ourselves to titters in seconds. My girls Christina, Lisa and Laura and I might not see each other for months or years, then reunite and be in gut-busting laughter in five minutes. My sister Mona seemed to lose her laugh as she lost her battle with mental illness so I know all too well the importance of maintaining that sense of humor. Now, at my age, we simply laugh ourselves until we need drool buckets....as evidenced by Kristy hanging her head over the sink in this pic. Happy Birthday, Apple Cheeks..

My life, clearly, is so much richer for having these women in it. So, take me home, country roads, to my Mountain Mamas, my Belles of St. Marys, my soulful sirens of hometown and West Virginia pride. We will cry the Big Ol' Ugly Cry, celebrate with abandon, lament whatever lousy luck we may be experiencing and as God is our witness, we will laugh.....oh, how we'll laugh.

Rock on, Sisters.