I truly enjoy looking at pretty flowers. I also like beautiful scenes, such as mountains, rivers, waterfalls and...well, you get the idea. But this isn't a story about my likes. It is a story about a gentle lady I met on the web who seemed to share some of my interests. When I visited her website, I found some wonderful pages full of flowers, scenes, poetry, and links to similar pages. Although small by some standards, it is a website full of delight. You won't find help here; except maybe for your soul. No, it is not a religious site. But it is full of warmth, love, and beauty causing me personally, to feel closer to our Creator.

Young at the age of 58, she has 10 grandchildren - three bloodline plus seven others who are either step or foster grandchildren. Widowed barely six months ago, she has asked me not to dwell on this because she says, "I don't want people to be sad. I enjoy life and I like to smile and make others smile. I admit to clowning around a lot just for the laughs. Hey, this old grandma can still ride a bike and climb a tree, if the limbs are low and not too far apart. I plan on enjoying the rest of my life to the fullest as long as my health allows!"

It is time to introduce this spirited lady, named Georgia. Before his failing health, her husband taught school 30 years and she worked at various jobs including full charge bookkeeper, office manager, payroll clerk, selling real estate, working for an insurance agent, even selling Avon part time for 6 years, making the President's Club 5 years in a row. "We led busy, productive, happy lives. We were active in church, participated in local civic activities, and also owned a carwash and laundromat (with my husband's brother) and I did the books. We enjoyed gardening, fishing, (I can filet fish) picnics, camping and hikes in the nearby scenic areas."

In December of 1999, her "love affair" with WebTV began. Several members of her family owned computers and were e-mailing each other regularly. "I wanted to be part of that and I wanted to learn what the Internet was about." Georgia was familiar with older, personal computers (still owns an old Apple) but couldn't decide what to buy to get on the Internet. "One night, I saw an infomercial about WebTV and it caught my attention." Several aspects appealed to Georgia. "You didn't have to sit at a desk." She had spent most of her life behind desks. "You didn't have to sign a long term contract for an Internet Service Provider." She couldn't commit to this due to her husband's health. "The cost was very reasonable." She didn't want to spend a lot on something she might not use often. With some input from a WebTV user her son knew, Georgia bought herself an early Christmas present...namely, a WebTV Classic and the keyboard.

The first thing she did was to start sending e-mails. She was thrilled when she received her first response. After a couple of weeks of going here and there, receiving good sites from family members, and finding live cams and poetry pages, she was just thrilled with her new toy. It literally opened up a whole new wide world. Gradually her e-mail list began to increase as cousins in Indiana and California began corresponding. Then, old neighbors in another town got her e-mail address. Georgia now has online friends in ten or more states. "I have about 35 folks I keep in touch with frequently." She receives about 150 to 200 e-mails a week.

One night while surfing, she discovered the alt.discuss.webpage discussion group which allowed e-mail sigs, and she was fascinated by the variety of sigs. Georgia noticed one lady poster in particular whose sig she just loved. After visiting her website, Georgia e-mailed her to tell her how much she had enjoyed and admired her site and her sig. They soon became friends and Georgia wants you to visit her friend's site...First Day of Winter. In addition to other help, her new friend helped her to make her first sig. "I was so proud of myself and then I discovered none of my e-mail relatives with PCs could see it! LOL."

She was having such fun learning all "this new stuff that my friend encouraged me to make a webpage. I had no reason to, but I wanted to see if I could." She decided to give it a try since she was pretty much housebound and was not happy just watching TV all day like her husband. And, although she loved reading, sometimes she felt she just needed a break.

Georgia learned most of her HTML from Newbie Notes and Patrick's Simple HTML. She also went to alt.pagebuilder.help whenever she got confused. She decided to call her webpage Georgia's World. Her one page grew to two, then three and so on. See her poetry page, and her Floral and Scenic Galleries for typical samples.

She was reluctant to publish her website at first. But she noticed webpages with guestbooks and, "I began to wonder if anyone would sign mine if I had one. So, I added a guestbook and went public with my pages." When a lady from Australia and another from Belgium, and a man from Germany signed her guestbook, she could not believe it! "And folks were so complimentary, it really surprised me.

She continued to surf to see other sites and learn. She found a background with a cabin which looked like it belonged in Tennessee. She wanted to use it in someway and Tennessee Mammaw's page was born. "I was even more hesitant about putting this site on the web having built it primarily so my daughter could print out my poems on her computer for the grandkids."

Georgia had created the early writings and poems solely for her family so that when she is gone and when they are grown, they will really know her, and perhaps, they can even learn something useful from her writings.

She began adding to Tennessee Mammaw's Place and made the page public because it proved to be therapy for her after her husband's passing. "It has given me something productive to do. I am in a transitional phase of life and I haven't yet figured out what I will do in the future." She is working on her first attempt at a novel called "Mountain Justice" which may or may not ever be completed. She would like to be a female version of Charles Kurault - visiting small towns and out of the way places across this great land of ours. "I would like to write about these wonderful Americans - these ordinary, everyday folks...maybe call it Tennessee Mammaw's Wanderings . But, who knows?"

Regarding WebTV, she has no complaints except for the intermittent problems such as the one in late September. She appreciates the updates and thinks it was great when the Instant Messenger was added along with the streaming audio or video. Since she doesn't watch a lot of TV, she has no opinion on any TV enhancements from WebTV.

Georgia really believes each morning that "today is the first day of the rest of my life. And, I hope to make it count for something for someone, and especially for my grandkids."

Georgia, that is a wonderful attitude. Thank you for allowing me to tell your story and for letting our readers share your website. I have enjoyed your site and our working together to bring more people to it...and I'll let you in on a secret. That old Apple computer you have will make an excellent anchor for a fishing boat.

E-mail Georgia

[Community Editor's Notes: And we agree with the writer! Your site was illuminating! Well done, Georgia. Each day is a gift and we should treat it as such!--ck]