TJ Holland Memorial

How To Remember A Friend

I know that so many of us don’t feel as if we have a firm footing with this sudden loss of our friend, TJ.

I have spent the last couple of days thinking about some way to give a gift that would be beautiful, lasting and meaningful. So as a memorial, I have arranged the purchase of this weaving by Cherokee treasure, Karen Berry as a gift for Caroline.

Karen has played a large role in the revival of the woodlands style of finger weaving. I think that her work is exemplary. Her mother, Mary, was a treasure as well with her bead work and embroidery. Like her mother before her, Karen is dedicated to the research, preservation and teaching of this Cherokee art preserving it for future generations while at the same time expressing her own artistic sentiments. I think that this is a fitting gift for our creative, artistic, historian friend, TJ .

Fire Bringer Weaving

This weaving shares the story of the water spider who wove a basket to carry the fire from a burning sycamore. She skipped safely to the base of the burning tree on the water and wove a little basket to carry hot coals across the river before the flood waters rushed down from the mountains above. As the story goes, the hot coals burned through the basket and marked the brave little water spider with a mark of fire that can still be seen today.

Just like the little water spider TJ carried the mark of fire which we can see so much more clearly in his absence.

Sept 23 Package Shipped

The Package is on it’s way!
If you would like to send a personal note or card to Caroline you can reach her at the address below:

Caroline Peay Holland
P.O. Box 993
Robbinsville, NC 28771

Memorial Contributions

The purchase is complete and is being shipped to me today. I will prepare a note to be kept on the back of the frame along with a card and then ship it to Caroline.

Below are those who have contributed toward this memorial gift. It is okay to share the link to this page with others who you feel would like to participate in this gift but I did not want to set up a public donation page. A question was asked about excess funds. I will let each giver decide - I’m happy to return portions of funds that we do not need or I’m happy to pass those along to Caroline with the card which I will be sharing here. If there is more than enough interest Karen actually has two of these spider weavings available - the other is a bit different and one could be a public memorial perhaps placed in the Snowbird Community or some other significant location.