It’s springtime in the Appalachian Mountains. The deep snows of winter have melted. Budding trees show their splendor by displaying a thousand shades of the color green, with splashes of red from the oaks and maples. Walk underneath these trees and around into the holler and you may find a small brook. Or stand still and listen and you may hear the soft sound of water tumbling over rocks, falling gently down the mountainside. Along these cool mountain streams there grows a delicacy called branch lettuce. It can be used in salads when young and tender or wilted with warm bacon grease and garnished with onions and crispy bacon bits.
My Aunt June lived alone at the foot of Mount Rogers in Grayson County, VA. It was a beautiful morning in 1950 when she and a neighbor walked around into the holler from her house. They both carried small metal pans and paring knives for cutting the lettuce. The birds were singing in the trees and Lamb’s Tounge, one of the first wildflowers of spring, was blooming in the woods. Before long they reached the stream and found the wild greens growing.
My Aunt almost had her pan full and had just raised up from cutting some lettuce when she saw a flash of red. The fox lunged at her face! Instinctively, she lifted her left hand and that is where it bit her. She stabbed the fox with the sharp paring knife she held in her right hand. The attack was over in seconds. My aunt was injured and the fox was dead. The neighbor quickly took off her apron and wrapped it around June’s bleeding hand. Then she helped her back out the path to the house. Unfortunately, that beautiful animal had rabies. My Aunt June had to endure a series of painful rabies shots. She recovered, but her left hand remained stiff and of little use.
My aunt continued her life as usual, living alone and riding the bus to Johnson City, TN as often as she could. Her husband was a long term patient there at the VA Hospital, suffering from head trauma he received during World War 1. She remained ever faithful and always brave. Though my Aunt June lived to be old, traces of her strength and beauty remained. She saw many a frosty morning at the foot of that mountain.
Born December 17, 1895 and passed away May 30, 1993.
