Nema Belcher

On the Cabin Creek Quilt project I was known as Nema's girl, and it felt good to know that someone with the quiet dignity and hard life of Nema would take to a city person such as myself. Nema was a quilter associated with Cabin Creek Quilts, but she lived some distance away in a community called Clendenin. There were several ladies in this area who contributed quilts, pillows and toys. My job was to bring them materials, and take back the finished product but also to contribute a modicum of quality control in the process. In order to be accepted in the role I had to demonstrate to the ladies that I had the right stuff. Being invited to actually work on their quilts was quite an honor. Of course after downing a couple cups of strong black coffee it wasn't always a good idea.

Nema showed her true stuff one day when we were driving from her house to another quilter's house by way of a back road. The roads in West Virginia can be treacherous and are also unpredictable. You start out on a reasonably good paved road, which gets narrower, and narrower. It then becomes gravel and then dirt with huge ruts. Turn a corner and you are back to gravel. Turn another corner and it is hard top again. Usually because of this and because there was rarely enough room to turn around without going over the cliff, you just kept going forward. Nema and I were practicing this wisdom when the car became totally stuck in a big mud pit. We needed traction so we got out and started throwing stones under the rear tires. Nema who had just moved to a "new" home after the state forced her out to make way for an Interstate, suddenly broke lose. She started throwing stones under the car and yelling, "take that Mr ..." using the name of the State, Attorney General who had forced her from her home.

She felt better after that, and we got the car to go forward once again.