Rich: School days

Sometimes when my husband, John Tinker, finishes writing a television script, he will skip down the stairs to find me.It’s funny, but I can tell his mood or what kind of news he is going to deliver by the gait he uses as he tumbles down the stairs.

Rich: Tink’s perfection

Sometimes when my husband, John Tinker, finishes writing a television script, he will skip down the stairs to find me.It’s funny, but I can tell his mood or what kind of news he is going to deliver by the gait he uses as he tumbles down the stairs.

Rich: Simple contentment

One fair summer evening, in the gloaming of the day, Tink and I were down at Mama’s, sitting in the yard swing.Not a lot was being said. We were just enjoying the quietness and watching the lightning bugs as they prepared for their nightly entertainment.

Rich: Gunsmoke

Tink and I were in Los Angeles on business.That’s the only reason we go. We had a few hours between meetings.He said, “I’d like to take you out to the Radford lot.”Radford is a studio a bit off the beaten path from other studios.

Rich: The light of wisdom

By the time I was 21, my good parents had taught me much of what they knew. And, that was a lot. Some of it had been hard learned in the mountains, some came from town life, and some were just born in them.

Rich: The cabin

Dust to dust, ashes to ashes is the way we often say it. But the King James Bible says it more eloquently, “For dust thou art and unto dust, thou shall yield.

Rich: Grave digging

Most of the local tellings — it’s not gossip — come from two places: the beauty shop and the funeral home.When Tink moved to the rural South, he had only been to two funerals in his life. On average, we have a visitation or a funeral about once a week. He’s become a pro.

Rich: Back in 1937

When she talked about those tribulations back in 1937, her feeble voice crackled with both age and emotion. With over 70 years separating them from now, the grief still lingered, but wisdom had covered it like moss on a riverbank.

Rich: Roosevelt and the ‘govenmint’ cheese

Most admire Franklin D. Roosevelt, a crafty, pleasant, get-it-done type of president.He had been raised as an only child to his mother and father, though he had step-siblings. He was tremendously spoiled but not in the way that turned him mean.

Rich: The homeless

It was many winters ago in Washington, D.C., that I saw my first homeless person. He was lying over a warm vent atop the Metro train. Behind him, across the street, the Washington Monument stood gloriously bathed in light.