It is ultimately because of my grandmother, Madeleine Gertrude Weishoff Van de Walker, who passed in 2001 at age 93, that I now live in the area.
She and my grandfather owned a salon on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach, Fla., and they became friends with the developers of Sapphire and the owners of the Fairfield Inn. My mother, an only child, attended Camp Merrie-Wood and then worked at the inn as a teenager – as did my dad, who was my mother, Meta’s, high school sweetheart.
Then I came along; and, although we lived in Palm Beach and other places – since my dad was in the Navy – we were always drawn back to the Plateau.
The developers of the condos around Fairfield Lake even built a salon for my grandparents so they could spend summers in Cashiers attending to the hair styling and manicure/pedicure needs of summer residents.
My grandparents owned a cottage just off 64 near the crossroad in Cashiers. Once the summer wound down, they would head back to their shop on Worth Avenue to attend to many of the same people during the late fall and winter months who vacationed on the Plateau in the summer.
Sadly, my grandfather passed in his early 50s. However, my grandmother never missed a beat, continuing to cut, color, and style hair well into her 80s.
One thing I most admired about her was her fortitude. As a poor child of 13 children growing up in Luxembourg, she had survived the occupation of Germans during the first World War, and she had managed to learn a skill, save money, and make the long and potentially dangerous trip by ship in 1929 to the United States as a single, young woman.
Madeleine Gertrude Weishoff Van de Walker
Everywhere I went with my grandmother, people asked about her accent, which she never lost, and she would very proudly tell them that she came to “the greatest country in the world” and she was “proud to be an American first” and Luxembourg native second.
People on the Plateau – in Cashiers and Highlands – knew her well, and she always tried to patronize as many of the local shops and restaurants as possible.
Trying to consolidate family papers recently that had long been stuffed into a box, I found her Certificate of Citizenship. Even though she is no longer here, the fact that that certificate now hangs on my wall and the fact that I eventually decided to settle in this spectacular region, would most certainly have thrilled her. I am not from here, but she gave me a history here. And, no matter where I traveled or lived throughout most of my adult life, I always gravitated back to this area that she treasured.
Her ashes are on Fairfield Lake, as are mother’s. A plaque attached to a tree honors them both. Some of the shops and restaurants that “Mimi,” as I called my grandmother, frequented even in her older age are still around. I enjoy them, as do my children. My daughter even worked at one of them for a bit. Four generations patronizing and appreciating the Plateau.
May we always remember and cherish those who came before us, as well as greatly esteem their contributions to our lives and the lives of others. And may we perpetuate the good of this area by preserving it and sharing it with future generations.
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