84 year old Granny Ketchum is a black mountain woman who lives alone and is respected for her knowledge in what would be known today as herbology and homeopathic medicine. Some of the medicinal herbs she grows and dries from her garden are sage, lemon balm, camomile, and periwinkle, used to treat numerous ills, including fever and toothache. She freely admits that she has no cure for old age, but doesn't seem to mind this natural order of life, comparing it to the uncomplaining withering of a rose blossom as it makes room for the new blooms. She is in tune with the natural rhythms of the seasons, both the mountain's and her own. Granny lost her husband and little girl to mountain fever 40 years earlier, relating that an old Indian woman came along and told her what to use to help them, but she came too late. This event would probably have sparked Granny's interest in herbal medicine, prompting her to learn what she could so that she could help other families before they suffered the same fate as hers. Granny is the original owner of Blue the Mule, and in this episode John Boy helps her get the cantankerous critter out of her cabbage patch.
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