Dear Reader:

What a fun day Thursday was! Bruce and Marcia ( Mollie’s parents) are down visiting from New Hampshire. They left their home in Clarendon with snow falling and are very happy to be in Lowcountry weather with golf for Bruce to play and flowers for the girls to plant.

I was just so happy to finally connect with Marcia and Bruce since I missed them on their last two visits. Both times I was at Edisto with the Ya’s… but the third time, this time, was a charm!

And that ” charm” took us to Sullivan’s Island to eat lunch at The Obstinate Daughter. I had heard about it and knew family and friends who had eaten there… but to date… I had not. So I was quite excited when I got the news!

I don’t think I am alone in wondering about the restaurant name and the story behind it. When we asked our wonderful waitress she said the origin goes back to the American Revolution and is symbolic of the defiance of the patriots fighting off the British Navy at the Battle of Sullivans Island.

The response just ” wet my appetite ” for I wanted to hear ( as Paul Harvey always said) ” the rest of the story.” Why is it an ” obstinate daughter” … Was a woman fighting at the battle or risking her life to tend to the wounded? Before I give you the answer ( required some research) let me give you their website’s explanation.)

Our name, The Obstinate Daughter, is an homage to the rich revolutionary war history of Sullivan’s Island.

On June 28, 1776, under the command of Colonel William Moultrie, the defenders of Fort Sumter foiled the British fleet’s attempt to capture the city of Charleston at the Battle of Sullivan’s Island. This first American Patriot’s victory inspired a London political cartoon to depict the ” Defiant Defenders of Charleston.

Obviously the name was created to include the state name-Carolina and surname-Sullivan for the fort and battle. An important but costly lesson was provided by another female – Mother Nature.

The powerful British navy was defeated by lack of knowledge about ebb tides, water depth miscalculations, their cannon balls were absorbed by the Palmetto log fort that turned the balls into sponges, and British ships ran amuck on hidden sand bars…or perhaps a better term” the vessels ran ” a-mud.”

In New York City we have the Statue of Liberty or ” Lady Liberty” to symbolize freedom. In South Carolina we remember the symbolic ( British cartoonist) ” Miss Carolina Sullivan” the defiant southern symbol of freedom through grit and determination … defiance in the face of overwhelming odds and trust in God to see freedom ring!

So until tomorrow ( restaurant owner’s mantra) ” To us, the ” Obstinate Daughter” is a beautiful reminder that the stubborn refusal to change one’s course of action can change the course of history.”

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh

We gals stopped and picked up more plants and flowers… Mollie got everything planted in record time. Beautiful!