Lucy was a homemaker. In today’s world, the life of a homemaker is one that is undervalued. With cheap and easy goods has come a devaluing of the do-it-yourself mentality of my Mamaw’s Great Depression generation. Now, a woman’s value is attached to the position she holds in the job market, first and foremost. But, Lucy Plunkett worked harder and had a more diverse job description than most career driven modern women today could handle.
Depending upon the time of year, she might be doing a variety of chores, from community volunteer work to making payroll for, or feeding, dozens of farm workers; from acting as director for church organized activities to acting as the base contact of radio operations for a fully functioning farm and fertilizer business. All this activity originated from a single location on Fletcher’s Chapel Road in rural Yazoo County. Many was the time that she helped call in parts orders to a tractor or equipment company radioed in from a remote field to the base radio that was only a few feet from the stove in the kitchen. Many times this was done while watching closely the pots on the stove, as she cooked for the dozens soon to show up from those very fields for lunch.
As a youngster, I watched this dance she performed day in and day out, year after year, until it became easy for me to take for granted. What would have been a maddening exercise for someone in most large office operations anywhere, she did while happily singing old gospel hymns. When there was a lull in the action, she would occasionally call me to the back room of the house to play the piano and sing some of those old hymns, playfully encouraging me with a smile to sing along.
God put Lucy Plunkett into a place in this world that many could have perceived at the time to be unimportant, certainly by today’s standards. But, what I have come to understand of my Mamaw’s life is she did more than just grasp the fact that she held a significant place in the lives of others. She valued it and saw it for what it was; an opportunity to serve.
As a youngster growing up I was taught in church the value of Christian Community. But, the greater influence was my Mamaw’s teaching of how to act in a community as a Christian, a distinct but important difference. She had no problem pulling a switch from a tree outside when I needed it. But, she didn’t preach, and she didn’t scold me about bad behavior from a “hellfire and damnation” perspective. She showed me, and anyone else willing to see, the value of a life led in dedication to Christian behavior by example. The golden rule was as integral a part of her life as putting on clothes every morning, and she lived more closely to Paul’s exhortation to live a life of prayer “without ceasing” than any person I have ever known. It was all balanced by the rarest of humility.
It is this lesson more than any other that has helped mold my belief system and transform me into the person that I have become. It didn’t begin to take a real effect on me, until she had been gone from my life for nearly a decade. But it finally took, if not in practice, certainly in principle. I admit to being a tough case, and there is always much work to be done.
Lucy’s example is that we as Christians must live the life we’re given. Far too often we are given over to complaint about what is wrong with the world. We have a selfish idea that we are greater than our station in life and are entitled to more, all the while becoming part of the problem; the whining do-nothings. Lucy Plunkett was about solutions, and I do not remember one selfish act that she exhibited of all the 24 years I knew her.
She was a person of action, and she didn’t need a college education, or a multimillion dollar trust fund to make a difference. She grew where she was planted, and the seeds that sprung from that growth include me.
I am growing at a different time and in a different place from my Mamaw, but by God’s Grace from the same roots. Like others before me, God has put me into a place in this world. It’s more important than simple geography. It is opportunity and circumstance. Like Lucy’s life before me, it is a time and place not of my conscious choosing. But, it’s my job to recognize the opportunity, to weather the storms, and to keep growing and serving as she did.
When my Uncle Rickey, Mamaw’s eldest son and my Dad’s older brother, drowned in a boating accident in 1975 on Wolf Lake it was devastating to my family and the community in which we lived. I was only 4 years old, but it was obvious growing up what an incredible impact that accident had on people. To this day, I still have people tell me about the type of man my Uncle Rickey Plunkett was. It has had such a profound sway on me that my wife and I named our youngest son Rickey. What was also obvious to me growing up during that time was the strength my family had through it all, and how it seemed to emanate from Mamaw. She weathered the storm, kept growing, and kept serving. Once again, she didn’t preach, she quietly and humbly showed the way.
In many ways my life has always been a dedication to my Mamaw. She has never been far from my thoughts. But, it is with great excitement that I make the very conscious and public dedication of the next year of my life to the person that was Lucy Plunkett. This is not just about the inspiration she is to me, but about the inspiration she can be to the many. It is my hope that, in some small way, I can give back to her by giving her to others, to take back from a disease that took from her. And, to serve her memory by serving others who have been stricken with the same debilitating disease of Alzheimer’s.
