08/25/2026
I don’t usually make posts like this on my business page, but I left the store this afternoon with lots of emotions and as I’m sitting in the school pickup line I feel like I need to share ❤️
Like so many, my breath was taken away a little while ago when I saw the video announcing that Dolly Parton had passed away.
We live in a digital age, so of course within minutes I had customers in the store who had already heard the news too. Of course I immediately changed the music in the store to Dolly Parton Essentials on Apple Music 😉
One of the first couples who came in had their six week old baby with them. As they were checking out the dad told me that he and his wife had tickets to see Dolly during her Vegas residency back in December before it was canceled.
My very next customer was a grandmother whose granddaughter was just born yesterday. She had just eaten lunch at the Tavern, and came by to pick out a little gift for her brand new grandbaby. She chose a sleep sack and one of the last Dolly Parton Little Golden Books we have in the store 🥺
She said that after hearing the news today, of course her granddaughter was going to have to grow up knowing who Dolly Parton was!
And I don’t know… that just got me.
A brand new life entered this world yesterday, and today are reminded that all life comes to an end.
Life is just so precious.
Someone can live a life filled with rhinestones and stages and songs and fame beyond anything most of us could ever imagine… and at the end of it all, we are still human. We enter this world, we get whatever amount of time God gives us here, and one day we leave it.
And it really makes you think about what matters. Not how much we had. Not how important we were. Not how many people knew our name. But how we loved people. How we treated people. What we did with the life we were given. And what we leave behind when we’re gone.
Dolly certainly leaves behind one incredible legacy. Her music will be played for generations. Children who weren’t even alive during her lifetime will know her name.
But I can’t end this post without sharing what I believe is the most important part of all! Dolly was open about her faith in Jesus Christ and her family spoke about that faith even as they announced her passing today.
And as a believer there is so much comfort in knowing that death isn’t the end of the road for us 🙌🏼
The good news of Jesus is that our hope doesn’t end when our life on this earth does. For those who put their faith in Him, there is eternal life with our Savior.
So today the world lost Dolly Parton.
But I can’t help but smile thinking about the fact that somewhere, a little baby girl who was born yesterday is going home with her very first Little Golden Book about Dolly Parton.
One generation leaves. Another one begins.
And what a beautiful reminder to make the time we’re given in between count ❤️🙏🏼
