A book set in rural Patrick County details the life of one family during the first half of the 20th century.
Nerina Culler said her book, “Rich? Or Poor? Which Are You?” is set at her family’s homestead, at the tip corner of Patrick County surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains.
“It was so beautiful, and the house was so beautiful, but the house has been hit by lightning and burnt down. The barn is gone, but the well is still there, and it’s still a beautiful place,” she said.
The now 83-year-old said she wrote her book and published it in Sept. 2021 because of her age.
“At my age, you don’t have nothing to do, don’t feel like doing nothing, don’t get no energy, and so years ago I said, ‘I want to write about my family and give me something to do.’ It was a joy to remember it and bring it all back. I still love that home where I grew up,” she said.
Culler said her book is about her parents’ struggles to make a living from 1900 to 1949.
“They had peaches and Jesus Christ, so that’s what kept them going. It’s also about their faith in Jesus,” she said.
That faith is where she derived the book’s title.
“Are we rich because we have such a savior in Jesus Christ, or are we poor because we don’t have our faith in Him, and we just have this old world? This world won’t make you rich spiritually wise, but it might money-wise,” she said.
Culler said she admired her parents, their perseverance to live despite their struggles, and their strong faith.
“They stayed true to Him. No matter even if they had to eat pinto beans every day for a week,” she added, laughing.
Culler noted her parents’ endurance is apparent throughout the book.
“How they endured and endured, and worked so hard and tried so hard, but they were never able to become financially independent,” she said.
Culler said her father had a peach orchard, filled with beautiful fruit.
“But the market would always be flooded with old cheap peaches coming in from Georgia and South Carolina. The stands and everything around would be flooded with them. The market was so flooded he couldn’t sell his except to a few people that had tried his peaches and loved them,” she said.
Culler said she stopped her book in 1949 when her father gave up on his peach orchard. This ending is also her favorite part.
“Because daddy had faced another defeat, and he was 50 years old, but he was not willing to give up. He was going on to Canada to cure tobacco up there in Canada, and start with cattle,” she said.
While the book ends on a cheerful, hopeful note, Culler says the reality is sadder.
“He failed at raising cattle. He went into it when it was real expensive, and by the time he got some raised and ready to sell the market had fallen. He did not make his money back,” she said.
The cover of the 257-page book was illustrated by Culler’s daughter, Debbie Culler. She also had several family members and friends including Melissa Barr, Nathan Culler, Andrea Johnson, and Phyllis Oehman, assist her with the book.
“Because they read the book long before I had it published, I just had to use somebody in the family that had read my writing on paper and not in the book,” she said.
Culler’s book is available as a paperback on Amazon, at the Honey Pot on Main, and at the Poor Farmer’s Market in Meadows of Dan.
