 My connection to a reactor is through the University of Tennessee at Martin. My late colleague, Professor Stan Sieber, was her champion in the 1980s and 1990s and invited her to several governor's schools for the humanities. Her presentations were very popular with the gifted high school students. I followed the tradition by inviting a reactor in the early 2000s to be one of the featured speakers at our annual Civil Rights Conference. But my first contact with her was through the publication in 1996 of the poem Mother Road in the University of Tennessee at Martin's Quarterly Magazine. The original was published in her volume, Abiding Appalachia. Mais racine. La création souvent exige deux coeurs. Un pour sans raciner et un pour fleurir. Un pour nourrir partant sec et fortifier dans la tempête la fragile fleur qui dans la gloire de son heure affirme un coeur ignoré invisible. I fell in love with the poem's caressing song and seamless simplicity. I immediately called a reactor and traveled to Memphis to meet her. Sensing that this was my first contact with a Cherokee Appalachian poet, she graciously introduced me to her work. Within a fortnight, I wrote an article about her work and translated 29 of her poems in French. They appeared in the journal Poésie Première in 1997 with a cover featuring a drawing of a reactor made by French artist Rosa Tatar. Over the years, I established a solid collection between a reactor and France. Four sets of poems with a translator's introduction appeared between 1998 and 2014 in the French poetry journal Poésie Première. One set appeared in the online French journal Recours au Poème and three sets appeared in the legendary Belgian journal Le Journal des Poëtes. Broadening her connections with Europe, she was asked just a few weeks ago to contribute a poem to the latest work of Italian sculptor Italo Lanfredini. Last but certainly not least, the French graphic artist Pierre Caillol and his wife and editor Marie offered to publish a bilingual artist's book for which a reactor and I are currently choosing poets. A reactor's message of respect for Mother Earth, respect for women and respect for science resonates with Francophone readers and has been well received over the years. In 2017, our French connection deepened when a reactor shared with me a collection of 50 letters she wrote to family and friends during her three-year stay in France from 1964 to 1967. As we discussed the context of the letters, the picture of her lifelong love for French culture and French people emerged. Working with her on this new project has been one of the most rewarding experiences of our 25-year friendship. She discovered the superb training she received from her teachers both at Oak Ridge High School and at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville where she graduated Magna cum laude with a double major in French and English and was offered a full graduate scholarship to the Sorbonne in Paris, France. France has played a vital part in a reactor's life. It has been a pivotal moment in her writing career. It is my privilege to piece together this story. This spring, a first article about it will appear in Poisy Première. He'll talk about geraniums, lace curtain windows, Voltaire, Perrault, Marie Curie and the many other ways in which France blends with a reactor's appellation and Cherokee traditions. Thank you.