I have spent the last several weeks compiling The Herald’s annual Profile section, which can be found in this edition. The stories shared offer a glimpse into the many people who call this community home. In fact, that was the common factor among the diverse line of stories that continued to repeat itself within my reporting. The love for Yazoo, the tight-knit atmosphere we share as its citizens and the impact this community has molded for the future generations were reoccurring themes.
The Yazoo community has her share of challenges. But, to me, it’s her people who truly are Yazoo’s greatest commodity. I would put the fellowship, compassion, and willingness to lend a helping hand among her people against any other community.
I was born in Natchez, but I found myself within other communities during different eras of my life. My formative childhood years were spent in Monticello. My adolescent years passed in North Jackson. And my teenage years continued back in my hometown of Natchez. Upon my arrival for college at Delta State University, I called Cleveland home for a few years.
To be quite honest, I probably spent about seven years within each of those communities as I matured. My spirit takes a nostalgic feel whenever I return to the sleepy town of Monticello with her quiet streets, country stores and my family history that spans back several generations. It was a remarkable transition when we moved to Jackson, and I became accustomed to “the big city” with its endless amount of shopping centers, hectic traffic and neighborhoods with cookie-cutter houses. Much of my general social outlook was created during my time in Natchez where, as a teenager, I formed my own opinions as I grew into a young adult. And my determination to become a journalist and create my own chapter was shaped at college in Cleveland.
But it was when I met and fell in love with a Yazoo boy at college that my next chapter in life began. When my future husband Jason Patterson told me he was born and raised in Yazoo, I had no idea what to expect about this community. I had only visited here once in the second grade on a field trip to the Witch’s Grave.
After our marriage, the opportunity for us to begin our jobs at The Herald presented itself. And with our hand-me-down furniture, big dreams and fresh marriage license, we arrived at a small rental house in my husband’s hometown.
I have called Yazoo my home for the past 17 years, which is the longest I have ever lived consistently within a community in my entire life. Things were certainly different for me when I first arrived. I did not have that familial connection found in Monticello. The bustling life of Jackson was not here. My teenage friends of Natchez were miles and miles away from me.
It truly was a new chapter. But it was the welcoming people I found within Yazoo that made me feel right at home. I have developed life-long friendships here. I have found a loving church family. My craft within my profession has been groomed here. And Yazoo has offered support and love when our family experienced challenges or tragedies.
Yazoo is the place where we are raising our three children. Yazoo is all they know, and her compassionate spirit is within their blood.
That is what I enjoyed most during my interviews for the Profile edition. Every single person admitted there are challenges here, but they all agreed “this is home” and Yazoo’s people are what make this place so very special.
I know that our three children may leave Yazoo when they begin to pursue their own careers and develop their own lives. But I feel they will always remember the foundation that was created in the half hills, half Delta. That is what makes Yazoo so unique. Her people never forget her.
That was evident to me when Jason decided to take me to Yazoo to meet his family for the first time before we were even engaged. Leaving Cleveland and eventually passing the concrete overpass coming into the north end of town, I looked over at Jason.
“This is Yazoo,” he said, with a smile. “This is home.”
Little did I know at the time, it would become my home too.
