Southern Voyage

Only two hours ago I returned from a voyage to South Carolina to see my brother and sister-in-law. I travelled in air-conditioned comfort thanks to my sister and her comfy car and we went with our father and his companion....it was her idea.

This is a place with churches on every block it seems and yellow pine trees all over the place. My sister-in-law Shelley’s family is deeply rooted in this land - easily traced back to the seventeenth century. Her father died recently and we travelled to his house, built in 1915 by family and the place she and my brother aim to move before too long. A sense of history and southern culture surround one there, things reaching out to you from long ago, some of them withered and barely able to whisper their presence. The house is covered floor to walls to ceiling in yellow pine. I walked through it like a visitor to a museum, awed and amused and welcomed.

My father has early Alzheimer’s and certain questions came forth again and again. It was no big deal to repeat the answer to “Where did you go to college?”.

We were in a comfortable realm, spoiled by two wonderful hosts, fed like the world might end tomorrow. We welcomed “Happy Hour” like true vacationers and did little or nothing with joy and exuberance.


A visit to the original family homestead revealed the remains of a once-proud house now barely standing. Who knows what secrets remain behind those weather-beaten walls, tales of a world where slaves were kept and survival meant something unfathomable to us driving in for a quick look?

The draw of Shelley’s family history is what gave this visit its richness and curiosity and sense of exploration, more than the local sights. I envy that kind of family history documented and present in surroundings. I have no idea what towns my relatives come from, only the countries: Germany, Russia, Lithuania (perhaps), Poland. No specifics. No one seems to know. I suppose that since I am well intrenched in middle age, these things have come to be of greater importance than ever before. Maybe it is time to find some answers.