Mr. Tipton's Hero

Mr. Tipton, Principal

When I think about my life, there have been many heroes.  However, there is one hero that stands above the rest.  That hero is my Mammaw, Adeline Caudell.  

No matter what you needed to talk about or what you needed to ask she was always there.  She was my rock. When I think of my mammaw, I think of her smile, her frank nature, and her unyielding love for her friends, family, and children.  She taught me many lessons about life.  

Adeline Caudell was a hero not only to me but my mother as well.  Mammaw was the widow of a coal miner who raised my mother alone from the time she was 4.  She worked her way up through Giant foods to become the corporate accountant for this large change which is now food city.  

As I grew up my mammaw, always kept my sister and I every summer. She lived in Kingsport and at her house she had a life-sized doll house that my sister would play in, a clothesline that my mammaw and I would play badminton over, and a basement that we could ride our bikes/hot-wheels/pedal cars in.

She always smelled like oil-of –olay and to this day I cannot smell that without thinking of her.  In her living room, she had a rocking chair and a piano.  I have the piano now and my sister has the rocking chair.  

The love for her husband that no one else could fill and the love for her child that she would give everything for has shaped me into what I am today. When I look at what I wanted to be the two most important things to me were to always be there for my wife and to always love children in order to  get the best out of them.  

I always think of her anytime something important happens in my life.  When I graduated with from UTC, I thought of my mammaw.   When I found out my wife was pregnant, I thought about how proud my mammaw would be of my wife and I.  When my little sister had her children, we thought of mammaw.  That is when you know how much you miss her.  

A hero is defined as a person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life. My hero is my mammaw.
~Michael Tipton