By Tiffany Allison
Bonnie Ruth Reece Wright always knew her calling
laid beyond the mountains of Mabel. As a young girl, she
would often sit on top of Tater Hill and dream. She dreamt
of what was to come. Little did she know her dreams would
carry her all the way to Cleveland, Ohio where she met her
soul mate and started the beginning of her inspirational
writing career.
Bonnie Ruth Reece Wright
and her husband, Harold, have been married for 50
years. Photo
by Mark Mitchell |
Wright, who was born June 15, 1929, was one
of the first cases of polio reported in Watauga County.
She grew up with 13 siblings, 10 girls and three boys. The
self-sufficient family lived on a small farm in Mabel, where
they grew a variety of crops. She grew up in hard times
before consumerism had dominated the minds of Americans.
Her mother made their medicine, sewed their clothes, soled
their shoes and hand-braided their brooms.
“My mom would make something out of nothing,”
she said. “She made our slips out of flour sacks and
dyed our clothes using grass, berries and onion peels.”
Both parents were self sufficient and taught their children
to be satisfied. Their lack of funds united the family causing
every member to be inventive.
“We made our own entertainment,” she said.
The family would gather around and tell stories and play
music into the night. The children would fashion their own
instruments out of leftover papers from their dad’s
cigarettes and combs. They would also dye the papers green
and red during Christmas and hang them on their tree. During
Christmas, the children would hang their socks on a nail.
They would each receive an apple, an orange, a tangerine,
candy corn and orange slices.
“We never got a toy,” she said. “A lot of
people looked down on us because we were poor, but we had
a wonderful father and mother. We never wanted for nothing.
The way we were living we were happy. We didn’t need
much.”
As supportive as her immediate family was, Wright did not
receive the same outside of her family.
“My uncle told me something I’ll never forget.
He said I’d done something really bad and God was punishing
me because I was the only kid born with polio.”
The fear of being different haunted Wright throughout her
younger years. She wore a back brace to school which caused
her to be insecure about being different. Before graduation,
Jenny Love, her mentor and teacher, made Bonnie stand up
in front of her class for the first time and speak.
“Before I graduated she told me I had to get up in
front of the class,” she said. “From that day
forward, I can look the world in the eye.”
Wright left North Carolina in 1955 and headed to Cleveland,
Ohio, to baby sit for one of her sisters. She found a job
at Bailey Meter Company, where she worked as a drill press
operator. On a rainy night on May 1, 1956, she met her husband,
Harold G. Wright, during a night shift. He offered to drive
her home to avoid waiting for the bus in the rain.
“We walked out to his car, and have been together ever
since,” she said. “I’d left and I found him,
and I found my dream.”
They were engaged June 15, 1958 and married four days later.
Harold and Bonnie shared their artistic gifts together.
“I write my thoughts down. Harold paints his,”
she said.
Harold has always had health problems. Part of his lung
was removed when he was 15 years old due to breathing problems.
As he aged, his breathing grew worse. He was diagnosed with
emphysema. The two moved around quite a bit to Chicago and
around North Carolina, where they settled for a few years.
Harold established his painting career, while Bonnie worked
at Shadowline, a lingerie factory in Boone.
“He was making more in on one Saturday selling his
paintings then I was making in one week at the factory,”
she said.
In 1986, Bonnie retired on disability for polio, and they
travelled all around the world selling Harold’s paintings.
His health problems became problematic and Harold suffered
a heart attack and broke his hip, leaving him paralyzed.
After the health problems, their lives changed drastically.
Bonnie, unwilling to leave her love, and Harold unable to
move from their home, decided to settle down in Mountain
City, Tenn. This time allowed Bonnie to pursue her poetry.
“All my writing reflects back to my childhood,”
she said. “It’s been the best therapy for me.”
She has won many awards for her poetry in the past few years,
including four awards with the International Society of
Poets. Bonnie credits most of her creativity to God.
“Without my faith in God and Jesus I would have never
survived,” she said. “I’m satisfied. I do
my crocheting and my writing. I’m not interested in
anything else. I don’t need the outside world. If someone
came and handed me a million dollars, I’d turn it away.
What would I use it for? My mind is filled with good memories.
I couldn’t ask for a better life.”
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