10/27/2026
If I could be in a certain place tomorrow, it would be sitting here at Tom’s Branch Falls!
October 28, 2018 will always be one of the hardest days of my life! My four sisters and I had just lost our loving mother January 2017 which was a crushing blow and on Sunday October 28th 2018 I went into wake my father and he had unexpectedly passed! Devastating is putting it mildly. My life and my sisters lives were changed forever! Our cheerleaders, coaches, consolers, security blankets, our central gathering place especially on Sundays, OUR parents were no longer there!
My sisters and I struggled for the next year with brain fog and the tremendous loss. Weekends, Birthdays and Holidays, there was never any thought other than that is where we would be. We were blessed with a super close family and our parents made Birthdays and Holidays a big deal.Their home was our central balance when one of us was off balance in our own world!
When you finally arrive to where you reflect on special moments and lessons you were taught or survived, that is when the grief fog begins to lifts and the gratefulness takes over.
Sunkota Ridge Baskets are the products of that gratefulness! Gratefulness that your parents taught you about God and the simple things in life will give you some of the greatest moments to hold forever. The hikes, camping, tubing, hunting wildflowers, fly fishing, badminton tournaments in the back yard, roll the bat, learning how to throw a boomerang! The list is endless and I feel for the kids today that don’t have that connection of nature, movement and simple but forever memories of outdoor fun and finding God’s hidden treasures such as the wildflowers that most people just walk by.
When I say my heritage is the Great Smoky, Appalachian and Blue Ridge Mountains it truly is and I have laughed over the odd facts, such as on my paternal side of ancestors, The Williams when they arrived to the US, traveled down through Pennsylvania south stopping in Surry County that is now Yadkinville, NC area for a short while then headed to East Tennessee to Citico/Tellico area and then to settle on Yellow Creek, Robbinsville, NC for a couple of generations then on to Swain County, Bryson City, NC where my father was born. The fun fact is after my father graduated the University of Tennessee, he, my mother and 3 older sisters moved to Hendersonville, NC to work at GE as a Design Engineer and where my youngest sister and I were born. When I was 7 my father then transferred to Mount Airy, NC Surry County? Not having a clue that his ancestors lived in Surry County briefly! All he knew was it was where Andy Griffith was born and raised, the real Mayberry!
When I hand weave a Sunkota Ridge Basket it usually depicts one of these areas, certain place, creek, waterfall, trail etc! As I hand weave them I allow the soaked reeds to make their own form and when completed I give them a name only to give them character and to depict that they are a special piece of nature. These names may not mean a thing to someone however that is the beauty of them! They are handcrafted nature with character to remind you to pause and in a world that moves quickly, the Sunkota Ridge Baskets are a message/invitation to appreciate the beauty around us and to remember that some of life’s richest moments are found beside a creek, beneath a waterfall or on a quiet mountain trail!
