Often heard is the phrase, “Take time to smell the roses.”

After 39 years of teaching, Claudine Harmon of Woolwine has done just that.

Now 86 years old, Harmon still tends to many rose bushes in her backyard where she has a beautiful view of the majestic Blue Ridge Mountains. At one time, she had as many as 75 rose bushes, grown for her own enjoyment.

Having been reared in one of the “hollers” in Woolwine, she attended Morrison School, which contained five grades until it closed. Then she attended Woolwine High School, graduating in 1949.
Her father, a logger and a farmer, avowed there was no place to work in the area, so she best get additional education. He suggested she attend Radford University, where she graduated after three years by going both summer and winter.

After she graduated from Radford, a job awaited her at Woolwine High School. She started teaching there as a home economics teacher in 1952 (there was no home economics cottage then). She taught there until 1970 when the high school at Woolwine closed due to the consolidation of all high schools in Patrick County. She then taught clothing occupations at Patrick County High School, retiring after 39 years of service.

Reflecting on her teaching experience, Harmon recalls visiting the homes of her students during the summer so she would get to know them better. She enjoyed working with all her students and remembers having the ability to establish good rapport with the special-needs students who often joined her classes.

When Joe Cobbler, assistant principal, asked her how she managed her classes so well, she explained to him that she made her expectations known at the beginning of the year. She said she occasionally had to step between two students when they appeared to be losing control (fighting).

With some nostalgia, Harmon explained that present day home economics classes are not what they used to be. “They don’t teach cooking and sewing anymore,” she said. “Nobody cooks, and you can buy a garment cheaper than you can make it. The cost of a pattern is as much as a garment.”

Having been born in 1931, Harmon said she is thankful to have been “blessed with good health.” She lost her husband some time ago, but the most difficult situation she faced in her life was the loss of her son, Orville, at the age of 34 due to a heart attack.

Harmon also has a daughter, Lois Ann Fields, who retired after 35 years as a kindergarten teacher in Dinwiddie County, where she continues to live with her husband. Harmon said she feel fortunate to be a very proud grandmother and great-grandmother.

Harmon started her rose garden around 2000 after the death of her husband. She said tending to them takes as much time as she used to spend tending a large garden, but she still enjoys it. When she walks out her back door on a sunny, spring day, “it always smells good. When you’re gardening, you relax and forget the world’s problems.” She still grows watermelons, cantaloupes and strawberries and helps with a peach orchard.

Being idle is not something Harmon practices. She gets a daily paper and completes the Sudoku puzzle, but creative handiwork and completing jigsaw puzzles consumes much of her time.
Harmon started solving jigsaw puzzles after her husband died and said, “It’s a waste of time.” However, it is easy to see that she takes great pleasure in the accomplishment of completing the puzzle and in sharing the beauty of the final product with others. Stacks of puzzles can be seen on racks in the garage and throughout the house.

Many completed puzzles on their respective poster boards are stored on her living room floor to her guests’ amazement. Most of the puzzles are 1000 pieces, but she does a variety of sizes, shapes, and number of pieces. One unusual completed puzzle is shaped like a black bear with its cubs.

Research shows that jigsaw puzzles were first created in 1767 and were called “Dissected Maps.” A geography instructor mounted a map to a wooden backing, cut around the individual countries with a saw and used the puzzle to teach children.

Later, a fretsaw was used to cut the wooden puzzles, and by 1880, they began to be called jigsaws. By the late 1800s, the puzzles were created from cardboard, and during the Great Depression, they became very popular as they were easy and cheap to mass-produce. Today puzzles can be cut with lasers.

Not only does she acquire the puzzles, but many folks like to gift her with them as well. Neighbors brought her a puzzle with a license plate theme, thinking they could stump her. She said, “It wasn’t really that hard.”

Creating, producing, traveling, and using life-long skills keeps the grass from growing under Harmon’s feet. She embroiders beautiful quilt tops, then hand sews the quilt stitching. She can piece a quilt top then hand quilt around each small piece. One of her prize creations is a crocheted bed coverlet that she said took her 60 years to complete.

Among all the other things Harmon accomplished in her 86 years, she has visited all 50 states since 2000. Many of her trips were bus tours with fellow retired teachers.
Enjoying the fullness of life, resting in the cradle of God’s creation – and smelling the roses – gives Harmon the peaceful feeling that she has a blessed life.