One of the things that has always amazed me about Tennessee is the kindness of most people. Not that people are not kind elsewhere, it just seems to be much more abundant in the hills and valleys of Tennessee. I have already mentioned some in past articles. Here are some more, and they are not in chronological order:
When we first moved into the state, we had to stay in a motel. With the help of a couple of people in our new Athens church, we had a house to move into the very next day. And the ‘couple of people’ became a group to unload our U-Haul.
Other than actually packing our stuff, moving has never been a problem. There have always been folks to load and/or unload. When we had a short stint in Las Vegas in 2004 (where I had been assured of a job that never came through), a group loaded our U-Haul. When we returned to Tennessee pretty much unannounced, old friends and neighbors showed up to help us unload our belongings into our house before it got dark. When we went to pick up our mail at the post office a few days later, the postman said, “Why, Hello, Mr. Kite. Heard you’d moved back. Glad to see you!”
There was a time when my husband was job training and I had to have a babysitter for our young daughter. One morning I took her to the babysitter’s and found no one home. I didn’t know what I was going to do. I headed to school with Danielle in tow and explained my plight to the principal. He kindly said it was okay for her to stay at school for the day until I found someone else to sit her. One of the kindergarten teachers, Mrs. Viola Smith, said she would take her in her class. “What is one more sweet baby in my classroom?” she asked. In a couple of years when my daughter was old enough for kindergarten, she requested Mrs. Smith.
During a snow storm that knocked out our electricity, a friend across the street (who did not lose electricity) invited me over to cook my half-thawed turkey. When we made a trip to visit relatives out of state, a friend up the street came down a couple of times a day to let our dogs out in the yard and to take care of our cats. She did this more than once.
I remember the time when my husband got pneumonia and ended up in the hospital. I worked during the day and cooked dinner for the kids when I got home. Then I headed for a short visit to the hospital to see Dan before rushing home to make sure the kids were in bed. One of my friends called when she caught wind of my husband’s illness. She chided me for not contacting her. Within 24 hours I had several casseroles, desserts, and other goodies from other friends, and she came over and cleaned our house while I was at work.
Then there was Bob Mahoney, the aforementioned principal of Niota Elementary School. When I interviewed in the spring of ’85, the family and I were living in Knoxville. I waited, hoping for the best, then on a Saturday morning in the summer, Mr. Mahoney called me and said, “I thought you would want to know that the board voted to hire you for the library position. I thought you’d like to know before the official call from the board.”
He was everything a principal should be to me—a mentor, a friend, and an all-around understanding boss. He encouraged me to go for my Career Ladder, which in turn increased my salary.
Life is so good when there is kindness in the world and I have been the recipient of so much in my life. I suspect we all have.
Susan Kite is the author of five published books, https://www.amazon.com/author/bookscape, as well as one children’s book coming out in the fall and a novelette included in the anthology Zorro: The Daring Escapades on May 1st. She is also a proud member of Author’s Guild of Tennessee.