She-Rain is "scraps of fog, adrift on the ridges of Appaliachia. It appears as lacy mist blown off the clouds of a high-mountain rainy day." When I read this description in She-Rain by Michael Cogdill, I knew my eyes were going to visit a beautiful part of America. I would also become introduced to memorable people who lived hard with love in their hearts and hate running over in their lives. Michael Cogdill's grandmother called She-Rain "A little tear off a heaven gown." Those words make me shiver and my toes wiggle.
This is Southern Literature at its best telling a story about family and neighbors in the North Carolina mountains. I became deeply concerned with the lives of Frankie, Mary Lizabeth whom I wanted to call Mary Elizabeth, Eb and all of the other people born to live in the grandeur of a mountain. Some people say "if these walls could talk." I would like to say and write if these mountains could talk. That statement would in some way not lend the whole truth. Because through Michael Cogdill's magical pen these mountains do talk. When these mountains speak, it's a tug on the shoulder by Michael Cogdill to stop, read and listen to a rhapsody of Southern voices as they struggle to find hope and the power to endure in the 20th Century.She-Rain
How did I relate to this book? I looked back on my family and friends. Most of them have gone on to the other side of the mountain leaving my husband and I, my children and grandchildren, daughter-in-laws and friends to live our lives by the stories we were not meant to hear, little children have big ears and wise hearts.Also, to recall over and over again the stories we were meant to hear, the stories which are meant to remain in our hearts until we die.
If our family will live in this way, we might have the God given grace to see SHE-RAIN. I truly believe my eyes have seen it floating over the Appalacian mountains. I'm sure it is a sight I could never forget in this life and perhaps, the next life. I would also like to mention Habitat for Humanity. It is an organization that displays what Michael Cogdill is all about inside and out.Help Habitat For Humanity
