Susil

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News From Mississippi

Life & Events > Jack Boy
 

Jack Boy

25 years ago:
I spent years as a home health nurse, traveling the back roads of two counties in backwoods Mississippi. Patients were scattered over a wide area, but I had found a short cut between two settlements, a rutted dirt road in a remote area. The only thing about the short cut was having to cross over a rude plank bridge that was so flimsy the planks rattled and I could picture the planks cracking and my car falling through into the creek below.

One day I got there and a sign was posted "Bridge Closed." I turned around and down the road, saw a white haired woman at her mailbox in front of a decrepit house. This was the only house along that lonesome road. It looked to have been made from heart pine and cypress planks that had aged into a dark gray. Azalea bushes had grown thick and tall as the house. An old Ford was nearly hidden with weeds. I had no idea anyone lived there.

Curious, I drove up and introduced myself, told her who my parents were etc. (That's how you get accepted down south.)The woman, Nola, said the county had put up the sign to try to keep log trucks off the bridge. As we spoke, I saw a shaggy old dog standing next to Miss Nola. It's eyes were white with blindness.
I asked if I could have a glass of water. Miss Nola said come in and we went in the house. She held the door open and said come on, Jack Boy, and the dog limped in and lay down under a table.

Miss Nola had a hand pump by the back door, and pumped a glass of water for me. Pristine water from an underground spring. It was the best water I have ever tasted and I told her so.
Miss Nola had no television or telephone; a radio and an oil lamp sat on the table. She was frail, with bruising on her arms and legs. She had no family to care for her. But there was such a noble dignity and self possession about her. Her personality radiated with it.
ME:How do you get to town for groceries?
MISS NOLA:Since the Ford gave out on me, I leave a list in the mailbox, and the mailman drops it off in town at the grocer's. His son brings the things I need out here to me.
ME:Have you thought about moving into the settlement? Things would be a lot easier for you.
MISS NOLA: I've been falling a lot, and know I'll have to go in a nursing home soon, but no one would want to take in an old dog, so I won't leave until Jack Boy is gone. The dog, hearing his name, lifted his head and feebly thumped his tail on the floor.
She said even though he's blind, he knows every inch of this house; he hardly ever bumps into anything.
The old dog got up and limped over to Miss Nola and lay down and laid his head on her foot. She reached down and patted the top of his head and was rewarded with some more weak tail wagging thumps.

I was astonished this woman would sacrifice what would have been a better life for her for the sake of a dog. I have never met anyone like her before or since. I think about her and as I grow older, and respect her memory even more.

susil

posted on Nov 2, 2010 5:50 PM ()

Comments:

This is so very sweet and sad, just breaks my heart, but it's uplifting at the same time.
comment by troutbend on Nov 11, 2010 12:23 AM ()
I moved to Texas and lost contact with her,but I heard Jack Boy had died and she went into the nursing home. She was aloof and quiet and didn't spend time watching TV in the dayroom and kept to herself, never any trouble to anybody. That was a special human being.
reply by susil on Nov 13, 2010 11:41 AM ()
Her dog was her very best friend and I understand perfectly.
comment by elderjane on Nov 3, 2010 5:40 AM ()
Hi jeri; her picture should be in the dictionary next to the words loyalty, and integrity.
reply by susil on Nov 3, 2010 3:59 PM ()
Some people think of them as more than just "a dog". I don't travel if I can't take the boyz with me. I have to admit that I envy your experience. One of my undergraduate majors was in sociology and I'd do a degree in anthro if my brain still worked well enough. My only experience with "off the beaten path" is from books, but you got to live it!
comment by jjoohhnn on Nov 2, 2010 8:09 PM ()
jj; as a home health nurse, you get to see people in their normal environment, and I saw some good things, some unusual things and some really bad stuff too.
(I've never like dogs, maybe because I'm allergic to dogs, cats and birds.)
reply by susil on Nov 3, 2010 4:03 PM ()

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