After a sweaty SUP board paddle on the Magnolia River I headed to Hillcrest Farm to pick blueberries. While fresh, healthy fruit was part of my reason for going, the other reason is that this farm was home to my great grandparents many years ago.

I never met my great grandfather Hermecz. Actually I never met Grandma Hermecz either but I feel like I know her. She died a week before I was born. Maybe we passed in the going and coming. My admiration for them has always been strong.

These two brave souls immigrated from Hungary, with my great grandfather James (Jim) coming first with his brothers, who settled in Ohio. Then his wife, Ethel and their first daughter, my grandmother Ethel, immigrated when my grandmother was a year old. Great grandmother Ethel was pregnant at the time with another child. They moved to Baldwin County and built a small home and later a bigger one.

As I walked the long rows of blueberry bushes I felt the beautiful spirits of my great grandparents and my grandmother and her brothers and sisters embedded in the land they farmed and loved. The blueberries were sweet and warm from the sun which made connecting with this sacred land even sweeter.

There were many people there picking and I fled further and further away from cellphone conversations and people complaining about email spam and children whining about being outside. Peace enveloped me when I found the only other beings around were brown thrashers and mockingbirds dining on the delicious, ripe berries.

As I stood in the shade of the large bushes with the warm, moist berry juice filling my mouth I felt gratitude for such strong ancestors who worked with the land and made a home there. I knew how happy they would be that their farm is still nourishing people…many people. I bet they would be fascinated by the kid who freaked out when rain drops gently splattered on his bare skin. And perhaps they would  embrace me and Grandma Hermecz would tell one of her fabulous stories.

I finished picking my 5.5 pounds of berries at noon. In addition to the berries I purchased honey and blueberry preserves and a serving of homemade coconut ice-cream to help me cool off after spending precious hours traveling back in time.