08/26/2026
The Little Engine That Could became the Little Engine That Did. 🥹🤎
Dolly Parton left behind more than songs.
She left open doors.
She gave us music to sing along with, stories that made us feel understood, laughter when life needed lightening, and joy that never depended on pretending life was easy.
Through her Imagination Library, she placed books into the hands of children who might not otherwise have had them. Month after month those books arrived carrying stories, possibility, and the quiet message that every child deserved a beautiful beginning.
She chose her own favorite childhood book, The Little Engine That Could, as the first book each child received, a story that helped her believe she could long before the world knew that she would.
But today I’m also thinking about something else Dolly brought into the light.
After caring for her husband Carl through a long illness, she spoke openly about realizing she had let some of her own care go.
So many people are doing the same thing silently.
Caregiving rarely looks dramatic from the outside. It looks like appointments, medications, interrupted sleep, meals, laundry, paperwork, worry, and listening for movement in the next room. It looks like keeping a household, a career, and everyone else’s needs moving while quietly setting your own aside.
Millions of people are caring for a spouse, parent, child, family member, or friend while telling the rest of the world they’re fine.
Love can carry us through extraordinary things.
But love does not make the stress harmless.
Thank you, Dolly, for the joy, the songs, and the laughter.
Thank you for giving generations of children the gift of reading. And thank you for helping bring attention to a part of caregiving that too often remains unseen.
We will miss your wit, your generosity, and your light.
But the love you put into the world will keep arriving, one book, one child, one song, and one story at a time.
~ Suzi
