One of my dreams for the past 15 years has been to move to my dad’s childhood home on Signal Mountain. His parents built it for their own family, moving in when my dad was a little boy in the 1950s. Visiting Grandmama and Papa Jack when I was a child was magical. We lived eight hours away so every visit was special. The long, winding mountain road to get there, the massive yard with trees hundreds of years old…our imaginations ran wild. There was a huge pine tree in the back yard my brother and I used to hide under. Its branches started 8 feet high but reached the ground at their tips, creating a secret wonderland that was in turn a castle, a fort, and a teepee in my imagination. We played with my grandmother’s antiques – I was an early reporter using her ancient typewriter, or a pretend student sitting at the old school desk or using my dad’s wall-mounted pencil sharpener. Door stops were solid cast “irons” that I pretended were for laundry. Papa Jack endured my sessions of make believe with good humor, allowing me to “style” his hair while he read the newspaper in his wingback chair. 

Some of my favorite memories are of a visit that included my dad’s sister and her family. My brother, cousins and I all slept like a pile of puppies on the living room floor – our parents got the beds, but we had more fun laughing and giggling under handmade quilts on that braided rug than we ever would have in separate rooms. We played board games that had been our parents’ and stomped in puddles when it rained, and it was special to be chosen to go to the Red Food store when Grandmama sent Papa Jack out for more grapes. 

When my grandparents passed away in the early 2000s, their home became a family retreat. For my daughters’ entire lives we have vacationed there, visited with Chattanooga family, and made our own holiday memories with my parents and my brother’s kids. So it’s not really surprising that as my job became more and more stressful, I would dream of being on the mountain. In 2026 that dream became a reality when my parents said we could move in.

We’ve been here a month now, and I love the details and thought Papa Jack put into every corner. A few of the huge trees were lost to a tornado, but we love watching our dogs race around the massive yard. We currently have a mama deer and her baby that visit most evenings, nibbling on Grandmama’s hostas as they pass through. Living here feels like completing a circle, and has been just the balm I needed after the stress of the last 5 years. 

I’ve written a blog about why I retired and eventually I may post it, but not now. I am in a happy, content space and really don’t want to revisit those circumstances. I would much rather tell stories about now. Follow my blog for updates.