08/07/2025
I was born in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, cradled by the Blue Ridge and raised by the heartbeat of the hills. My daddy’s blood runs thick through the mountains and hollers of Southwest Virginia and Eastern Kentucky, where folks know how to make do, stand tall, and lean into the land. Mama’s roots stretch through Northern Virginia down to the sandy soil of Central Florida, but it was the mountain ways that raised me.
I was brought up on hillbilly values...resourcefulness, grit, loyalty, and reverence for the land.
We didn’t need much, just soup beans, cornbread, fried taters, maters, and onions on the table, and that was a feast worth a blessing.
Mammaw in the kitchen canning beans, baking something, and stirring a pot. Those smells will linger in my memory forever. My Pappaw's pipe lingering in the background...it was such a beautiful time in my life.
We hunted what we ate, fished the creeks, raised animals, and turned the earth every spring.
I can remember running barefoot through the woods with hoots and hollers that echoed off the ridges.
We lived close to nature, because that’s where the wisdom lives. You respect the land, and it provides.
You honor your kin, and you stay rooted. And you never forget that the hills speak...if you’re quiet enough to listen.
I didn’t just choose to be a nurse...truth is, the path of healing chose me.
I was only 19 when I first stepped onto that road, not fully knowing where it would lead, only feeling the pull in my bones.
Now, standing at the edge of 50, I can see just how every experience has shaped me … not just into a nurse, but into a healer.
A woman. A wife. A mama. A soul that carries both scars and wisdom.
I’m not perfect..not even trying to be.
I’m still evolving, still learning, still growing.
But what I do know deep in my marrow is that I was born to heal.
I carry an innate knowing, a deep-rooted sense of what’s needed....
often before the words are spoken.
My business isn’t just a brand...it’s my life’s breath, my sacred offering, and the vessel for my passion. After decades spent at the bedside, holding hands through pain, fear, and hope, I’m no longer called to simply treat..
I’m called to walk beside. To guide. To educate. To help others remember their own power to heal. Because healing doesn’t come from the outside...it rises from within, and I’m here to help light that path.
Humbly your's
✨️Cristal✨️
Nourished Roots Apothecary 💜