On a train ride from someplace bad / To someplace little better / In between my youth and manhood / Was the place I met her

She was just a skinny brown eyed girl / With a hunger for tomorrow / And I was then obese by pain / I had all that I could swallow

Oh, fair haired traveling girl / Keep on traveling on / Oh, fair haired traveling girl / It's just the seat that you have is wrong

Her eyes were packing past regrets / In her lips there was redemption / And she mistook my coat for love / As she wore it for affection

As she took the seat beside me / I inhaled all of her laughter / And she forgot there is a past / While I forgot there is an after

Oh, fair haired traveling girl / Keep on traveling on / Oh, fair haired traveling girl / It's just the seat that you have is wrong

On a train ride from someplace gone / To someplace almost certain / In between my flesh and bone / Was the place I met her

And wrapped up in my coat of shame / She laid there sleeping tightly / And as the train pulled to another stop / I knew she'd go on without me

Oh, fair haired traveling girl / Keep on traveling on / Oh, fair haired traveling girl / It's just the seat that you have is wrong / It's just the seat that you have is wrong

When Sarah was four, and Laura was three years old, we practically lived at my Mom and Dad’s place on the creek. (Jones Creek, pronounced Jone-sus for all non speaking Appalachian friends). It was only a few acres but it packed full of everything a kid could ever want. There were fruit trees, apples cherries, peaches, and a garden always planted full of vegetables, and Mom grew grapes, black raspberries, strawberries, and even kiwi’s at one time. There were trees to climb, a concrete patio for riding tricycles and big wheels, a covered porch with a porch swing and a leftover swing set from my younger sisters. One day when all us grown ups were just sitting around talking, Sarah came running up to us and said Mom, “Laura’s going down the road”. The entire place was on a hill with the road down below it, and fenced. I looked around and could barely see the top of that blonde head heading down the road, so determined, and independent. You have to understand, Jones Creek is mostly a curvy, one lane road, with the creek on one side and peoples houses on the other. Cars tend to speed here,  so I was terrified for my little one. But  I  caught up with her, grabbed her hand, and started to walk with her. I asked her where she was going. She said “ I am going to Dow Jones store Mom”. I said  well lets go back to the house and get some money first, and she agreed that would be ok.  Now, Dow Jones store was just a small one room, old country store- sold mostly pop and cigarettes, and was at least a quarter mile from my parents place, but I don’t think we had ever been there more than once or twice. That was the beginning of her traveling, and my worries knowing then there would be no holding this spirited little girl back. 

Laura

— with Toast and Birds

2005: Laura, Martin Mash, and me during the College Leaders Program, literally days after meeting for the first time. 2014: The photographer at a Sorensen Gala worked with us to recreate the photo. 🙂

Laura and Burt

Laura Harris 2007 MAY/JUNE AARP magazine

“I hear there’s Faeries out on Jupiter”

Clinton & Laura

— with Toast and Marmalade

Ray LaMontagne, Highway to the Sun. Live. 

Christmas Day 2020 at the Farm Laura, Clinton, Sarah Zack, Paul and Leia

Sarah, Zack and Laura

Laura and friend receiving immunotherapy.

It is hard to believe it has been a year today. She passed through this world like a bullet, taking our hearts with her as she went. I think of her as traveling through a world, I hope,  we may come to know one day. She was always a traveler. 

I know, as her Momma, that first and foremost, her heart was always with all of us who knew and loved her. 

— with Burt

— with Toast