Stags Head Retreat has a member of the family who does not live here, but has become part of the very fiber of its being.

When Rutherford and I moved into SHR, we were given only one thing — the business card of a plumber who was the only person in the county who understood our overly large, ancient boiler.

We went down to the boiler room and, after only a moment of staring at this behemoth, we dialed the number.

A clean but disheveled country fellow, smelling faintly of heating oil, showed up in a very well-stocked working van. He grumbled and muttered as he showed us the inner workings of the boiler room. His curmudgeonly attitude was punctuated by impatience as we tried to follow his jargon-laden logic.

As we walked outside, I managed to lock us out — pausing to tug and recheck if there was an open door anywhere.

The plumber sighed with the resignation of a man who was done.

Without ceremony, he walked to the hidden key — the one we did not know about — and let us back in.

Rutherford and I looked at each other and had the same silent conversation:
We need to be friends with this person. He knows where the key is.

Days turned into weeks and months. No one remembers how — only that there was never an invitation — but the plumber, now affectionately called Triple P (for Perry the Platinum Plumber), began showing up every Saturday morning at eight a.m. for coffee and blueberry pancakes.

He used to arrive at 6:30, but we told him he had to wait until eight.

He shows up with biscuits for the dog, leaves his boots by the door, and settles in with his mug.

But this relationship is not one-sided.

For the price of weekly coffee and pancakes, what we receive is invaluable: horse care, a trusted hay supplier, help building the chicken house, help building steps — and someone who mysteriously places American flags on every post of our fence each Fourth of July. He is also the person who gifts me my beloved South Carolina flag when I leave town.

The list goes on.

And I think we have given him something too.

Help navigating health issues. Protein added quietly to his pancakes. Collagen stirred into his coffee. “Horse treats” — peppermints — always in my pocket in case his sugar drops. Sending him home every Saturday with pancakes for breakfast the next day.

Triple P is not just another blessing in the day-to-day life of Stags Head Retreat.

He represents the ebb and flow of people who love and respect each other, the land we live on, and the animals we care for.

This symbiotic flow is a blessing — earned and shared — and something we do not take for granted.

It is cherished with our whole heart.