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FEBRUARY / MARCH 2020 • MONTANA SENIOR NEWS
The Intermittent Father and Grandparent
PULLED BY THE LOVE OF BOTH MOUNTAINS AND SONS
BY D. A. BÄCHER
I am currently a resident of the forested
mountains of West Virginia’s Appalachian
Highlands, who often visits Montana with
its snowcapped peaks. These visits are
in no small part prompted by one who
has utterly and completely captured my
heart—my two-year-old granddaughter.
(Oh yeah, my son and daughter-in-law
also live there.)
In my visits I have met many others who
intermittently come to Montana, as well as
my daughter-in-law’s home state of Idaho,
to visit grandchildren and/or children who
have been lured by the beauty of the region
of their births. Such is the current state of
the American extended family.
My wife and I raised two sons in the
northern Kentucky suburbs of Cincinnati,
Ohio. One son settled in West Virginia, the
other in western Montana. We have no rel-
atives in the Cincinnati/northern Kentucky
area, so when my West Virginia grandson’s
public school was wiped out in the 2016
West Virginia floods, and he transferred
to a parochial school in Charleston a good
distance from his rural home, we decided
to move to Charleston and perhaps be of
some use.
At the time, our Montana son had no
children, but, for a number of years, my
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wife and I had been spending a good deal encountering waterfalls as the sea-forming
of the summers in Montana with frequent liquid began its seminal journey home.
excursions into neighboring Idaho. Once As they grew into manhood, different
our Montana granddaughter was born a mountains tugged at their spirits. The
little over two years ago, the length and younger was attracted to the wildness of
frequency of these visits increased. Montana peaks towering over the region’s
You can’t place the love of your children vast landscape. The elder was drawn to the
on a scale. One issue I believe worth explor- rugged highlands of the Mountain State of
ing is the problem of moving to one child’s West Virginia.
location rather than the other’s—how do Two sons.
you not give the appearance of favoring one? Two mountain ranges.
This offering examines being wrenched Two life journeys.
by my sons’ decisions to locate in two One father.
different mountain ranges, far from their One son now dwells in the stark
father (using pseudonyms for my sons). range of the Rocky Mountains; one son
tHE MOUNtAINS OF MY SONS in the forest-blanketed mountains of the
Adam and Elijah were born and raised Appalachians.
in the unique Knobstone Escarpment of Dry air—rather than humid.
the Ohio River Valley region. The pool table The whispering of the wind—rather
flatness of the mid to upper part of the than the steady chirping of birds.
Buckeye state made the brothers uneasy. The crunch of rock movement under
As they grew, repelled by any land- foot—rather than the crackle of old leaves.
scape failing to incorporate a defined Splotches of conifers on rocky slopes—
visible edge, the siblings became attracted rather than lush, leafy green hillsides.
to mountains. At first to Kentucky’s Clear, crisp air with a hint of pine—
Appalachian foothills, not far from their rather than the pollen-filled fertile air of
rearing; exploring through youth group the Appalachians.
backpacking the craggy, wind worn, sand- Both ranges have their charms, and
stone features of the Red River Gorge. each child has chosen the one that speaks
During the boys’ college years, one to his soul.
scaled the cliff sides of that area’s canyons; The father is pulled by a love of both—
the other explored the high streambeds mountains and sons. MSN
cutting through its upper plateau, often A very popular “extra bonus”
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