She was born in October, 1887. As a child in Gallia County, Ohio her primary source of transportation was walking. Little did she know this most basic form of exercise, whether performed for work or pleasure, would one day, and quite unexpectedly, make her famous.
At 19 she married a man with whom she would raise 11 children, while secretly enduring emotional and physical cruelty at his hand, until, after nearly 45 years, with the children raised, she found the inner strength and courage to walk away for the last time.
During this tormented marriage she often found solace in taking long walks in the woods. Sometimes she was accompanied by her children, teaching them the names of wildflowers and about the edible and medicinal plants she had learned about as a child, but more often she walked alone, absorbed in her own thoughts as she sought temporary emotional healing.
After the divorce she worked at a number of odd jobs and helped look after her growing brood of grandchildren, the number of which would eventually reach 24; and to escape the daily chores and stresses of life she continued to frequently take long, quiet, solitary walks in the woods.
Then, on May 2, 1955 (coincidentally, 59 years ago this week), at age 67, Emma Rowena Gatewood – a wisp of a woman standing just five feet two inches tall – told the son with whom she was staying at the time, “I’m going for a walk.”
One hundred and forty-seven days and 2,050 miles later Emma ascended Mount Katahdin deep in the State of Maine. Unbeknownst to all but a cousin, she had caught a flight from Dayton to Atlanta and then a cab ride to Surgarloaf Mountain in Northern Georgia to begin this longest and most rugged walk of her life, thereby gaining unsought notoriety as the first woman to complete a continuous through-hike of the Appalachian Trail.
Grandma Gatewood, as she affectionately became known by the press, would go on to hike the entire 2,050 miles of the “AT” two more times. Before her death at age 85 she would hike numerous other local and national trails and would become a founding member of the association that created Ohio’s Buckeye Trail. A six mile stretch of this trail, where it passes through Hocking Hills State Park, is named the Grandma Gatewood Trail in her honor.
The full story of Emma (Trowbridge) Gatewood’s childhood, tragic marriage, and extraordinary accomplishments as a long distance hiker during her old age are recorded in a book well penned by Ben Montgomery, and recently released by Chicago Review Press.
There is much more I could write about Grandma Gatewood, such as the fact her footwear was Keds tennis shoes (7 pair were required to complete the AT), and her backpack was actually a simple denim knapsack which she sewed with her own hands and carried on a drawstring flung over her shoulder; or that she survived on the trail without a tent or sleeping bag, choosing instead to sleep on a bed of leaves overlaid with a shower curtain, and that her nourishment often consisted of the edible plants and berries she found along the trail.
But this column is not about Grandma Gatewood so much as it is about life, particularly in “old age”. I have briefly shared her story as just one amazing example of how important, to paraphrase A.D. Williams, it is to “Let your life control your old age, rather than letting the circumstances of old age control your life.”
The concept William’s has espoused is not new to my mind. Long ago I learned that life is best lived in the moment; that happiness lies within, just waiting to be discovered each moment of each new day; and that the bedrock principle to having abiding peace in life – at least for me – is to continually (“pray without ceasing”) claim the promise of the Serenity Prayer in the little, medium sized, and large (that would be all) issues of life.
Embedded within this philosophy is one additional principle, that of learning to accept and be comfortable with who I am as the person God created me to be, and to be equally accepting of others for who they are and wherever they happen to be on their own life journey.
I was reminded of the importance of these life-living principles when Yvonne and I attended our 50th high school class reunion this past weekend. Like the other 35 or so classmates who were able to attend, we have noticeably aged. All of us, to greater or lesser degree, are experiencing the inevitable physical infirmities that come with the aging process – not to mention the loss of brain cells!
I share these thoughts with you not to discourage, but as a reminder (as much for myself as for you) to let your life control your age rather than letting your age control your life. If ever there was an example of doing this it was Emma Gatewood. Yes, at times she did it imperfectly, but in the end she did it well.
It is my desire, both for my own health and happiness and, hopefully, as a meaningful example to others, to do as well as she.
George Brown is a freelance writer. He lives in Clermont County with his wife, Yvonne.