April 2025 - GGCN Magazine Kelley Springer

Grandmother of the Month 

Kelley Springer

Weaving Ancestral Threads

My healing path began with an awakening to my Indigenous roots. I was the third of four daughters, raised in a sea of petticoats and the rhythms of Southern Baptist life in Louisiana, church three times a week, choir practice, youth group, and a strong sense of what it meant to be a “good Christian.”

 But even as a child, I saw through things others didn’t. I often left church with more questions than answers, wondering: What does it mean to be good? And where is the deeper truth of God?

Our mother played piano and organ, her voice opening hearts with every solo. We were blessed to have two grandmothers, a great-grandmother, and a grandfather in our lives. My father’s mother, Hatty, used to tell us, “You are Choctaw royalty.” My parents barely responded, and the subject was quietly buried. But something in me held on.

Continue the journey.