Mrs. Maggie Lee was an early riser, like her husband, so she was used to hearing him tell her in the pre-dawn hour, “Going for a run,” and sometimes, “Going for a climb.”
She was hearing that a little more, and, having not known him for as long as he had been back in Lofton County, did not know how significant that was yet.
But on that day, after he had his returning coffee with five-year-old Lil' Robert Ludlow their baby cousin and put him back to bed, he made tea for her, and explained.
“There is a place in the Blue Ridge only those know the mountains as our lives know … it is called the Edge of the World, for you can stand in it on a foggy morning and literally be the edge of all that can be seen, and it is a 900-foot step to the bottom. My relatives keep a watch there for people in despair, and utterly forbade me to come near there for some years, for they knew I was in high-functioning but severe depression.
“Today, I went up, and was sighted along the route, and was stopped, examined, and even escorted by some of my bigger Lee-of-the-Mountain cousins … it was a wonderful clear morning and one can see all the way to the Roanoke River, and I took many photographs for you and our little cousins to enjoy.
“Before I left, my grandfather had worked his way down the mountain to the spot … as you know, Sgt. Horace Fitzhugh Lee still gets around very well and also knows said big Lee cousins of mine will carry him back up if need be. Papa was all smiles.
“'I've been expecting you,' he said. 'Love is the cure, my grandson who is also my son.'”
“We knelt there and prayed with several of my cousins, and then Papa handed me these … .”
Col. Lee pulled out a little tin of cookies.
“Grandma was feeling like baking yesterday, and can't make a dozen cookies – she still makes six or seven dozen with the help of the family, so they sent some for us to have with our tea, and by the time I got to my car someone had put a bigger tin down there for our Ludlow cousins and their little friends.”
Mrs. Lee smiled.
“Papa is right,” she said. “Love is the cure. You could not be healed outside that kind of extended family structure, because that is all you know, so now that we have been here eight weeks, and are moving in as neighbors, of course.”
“Sometimes you don't see it until you are there,” the colonel said, “but you are right, my love … you, and our Ludlow cousins big and small, and the Trents next door, and the family we will have here … close enough to the Edge of the World, but down here where we are called for now … you and Papa are right.”