Simple Pleasures Review: Tuckahoe Holler

Written by Brenda Seward

Tuckahoe Holler, by Betty L. Sheridan

Reviewed by Brenda Seward

Tuckahoe_Holler Tuckahoe Holler came to me as a recommendation and became something of a gift. It reminded me how significant the little things can be and how incredibly strong and adaptable the human spirit is.

While Betty Sheridan’s book may appear on the surface to be just a story of survival, it is so very much more. It is most definitely a story of strength and survival, but it is also the story of how we survive and how the decisions we make while in the midst of crisis can affect both others and ourselves. That, in many ways, is the true test of our strength.

Tuckahoe Holler is the story of Sylvia and James Alderson, a seemingly happy and comfortable couple in their fifties, living a simple yet complete life. All of that changes when Sylvia returns from a wilderness trip with friends to find her house burned to the ground and her husband missing. Compounding Sylvia’s feelings of grief, confusion and shock is the growing suspicion by the police that her husband is somehow culpable in what has happened. It becomes clear rather quickly that no swift answers to the mystery of what happened to her home and husband will be forthcoming, since James has quite simply disappeared without a trace.

Relying at first on the kindness of her neighbors, Sylvia takes a hard look at her future - at the fact that her finances are quickly depleting, that she has never held a “real” job apart from caring for her now deceased parents and her husband and their home…a home she no longer has - and comes to a hard decision. Remembering a patch of land she owns in the Appalachian Mountains, Sylvia decides to take refuge there - to carve out a place for herself and begin again. Fortified with nothing more than her survival skills, a few supplies and her grit and determination, Sylvia begins to carve out a home - quite literally - from the harsh mountain land. During the initial months of Sylvia’s time in Tuckahoe Holler, she exists in a fashion that few of us would willingly endure - or have for several centuries. No permanent structure (she endures the last few months of winter in a tent), no running water (apart from a mountain stream), no indoor plumbing (one of her first projects is to build a latrine). As soon as the weather allows she starts planting in order to rely more on the land and her own efforts than her extremely small income.

Despite being quite literally homeless, Sylvia is hardly someone you feel compelled to pity. In fact, quite the opposite is true. Her determination, grit and innovative spirit give her the tools necessary to wrest a home - not merely a dwelling - from the one thing she can still call her own, her land in Tuckahoe Holler. In making a home there, despite the isolation of the area, Sylvia also finds herself making friends and becoming part of a small, unique community. Consequently, part of the same unique twist of fate that brought Sylvia to the “holler” also puts her in the unique position to change the life of someone she would otherwise not been there to help.

During this time, James also finds himself on a life-altering path. His path may not be quite as self-directed as Sylvia’s path, but unique and possibly as fate-directed as Sylvia’s sometimes appears to be.

As you read this book, you will feel the pain, bewilderment, and conflict that both Sylvia and James experience, but you will also feel their strength and resolve. This testimony to their perseverance, despite sometimes insurmountable odds, is quite inspiring. It reminds me of the quote, “… sometimes when God closes a door, he opens a window”. In this case, the door that was closed the fateful night when James disappeared and their home was destroyed opened a window with a view to a different path (or paths, as the case may be). These paths both enriched and strengthened the travelers and along the way, they were able to strengthen and enrich others. Tuckahoe Holler is testament to survival in its finest form.

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Review by Brenda Seward, owner

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