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Paul (Mike) Gilliam served his country with the US Navy in Viet Nam during the early 1970’s. While stationed overseas, he started receiving letters from home, written by the Church Ladies in the Benton Harbor/St. Joseph area where he hailed from. The letter that caught his attention most was written by the teen daughter of a local Gospel singer. When Mike responded, the girl quickly began to take more of an interest and looked forward to meeting the sailor.

Jeana, a graduate of Lake Shore High School in Stevensville, was not all that interested when she first caught site of Mike, covered with grease and grunge after spending the better part of a morning working on an automobile repair job. However, seeing him later at Church, cleaned up and accompanied by his Aunt, things changed. The two began a romance that would last a lifetime. A Wedding date was soon set, for March 18th, 1973. However, the Military works under its own calendar and the completely-planned wedding had to be rescheduled for April 21. Upon release from active, overseas duty, Mike was stationed in the state of Washington at the Naval Base in Bremerton, where the pair settled down to happily married life, having babies.

An Honorable Discharge from the US Navy meant a return to Michigan’s southwest Berrien County and college for Mike. Three degrees later, Mike had knowledge and credentials from Lake Michigan College in Maintenance Mechanics, Electrical Engineering and XX. Mike and Jeana were both working at Zenith Heath in Benton Harbor while the family grew in size.

Intuition paid off when Mike and Jeana predicted the demise of their employer and six months before the company closed its doors, purchased sixteen acres of land on M-140, just north of Watervliet. A small run-down restaurant with a single electric fryer, grill and chest freezer was to be the focus of the family business they intended to build. On September 12, 1989 Jeana brought her crock pot and proceeded to blend her love of home-made pies with the skills her Mom had taught her in bread-making and dinner preparation. Ma and Pa’s quickly became an area attraction.

Mike and his son went to work adding-on to the existing structure, putting in buildings for laundry, showers and restrooms. The three children, aged 10, 11 and 13 were put to work as well. The family thrived on the fresh air, country atmosphere and family sharing.

Tragedies came to cloud the horizon as the close knit family reached the end of the decade. Jeana’s Mom passed away during 1999 and in 2000 Jeana’s brother and wife were having some serious difficulties. It looked as though four children’s lives were hanging in the balance. Numerous trips to North Carolina in order to meet all legal requirements to adopt the girls included dealing with Courts and Social Service systems.

Amanda was 13 at the time she and her sisters came to live at Ma ‘N Pa’s in Watervliet. Her life had been fraught with one illness after another. Additionally, she sought refuge from a fearful environment by assuming a tomboy appearance and was rarely seen without a baseball cap and attitude. Her emotional state included a depression that rarely lifted and frequent hospital visits didn’t help at all. Her turbulent early life had taken the joy from her that Mike and Jeana were eager to replace.

In spite of Amanda’s illness, family life and love in the close knit family provided the soil for her to blossom into a happy girl. The turning point came with the wedding of the second oldest, when Joanne made the request to Amanda, to “Please, wear a dress”. No one had ever seen the tomboy wear anything faintly resembling a dress and a ripple went through the Church as Amanda made her first public appearance with her hair and fingernails done in a very feminine manner. The teen girl was claiming her own.

Sadly, Amanda’s time was limited after the wedding and on November 27, 2004, Amanda was released from the illnesses that had plagued her short life. She found peace with the Lord and left this world. The world of kidney problems, dialysis, catheters, infections and hospitals was over. She had blossomed into one of the Rainbows she loved, adored by the doctors, nurses and staff at the Bronson Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She was going to be missed by many people.

Today the Gilliam Family still operates Ma ‘N Pa’s Country Kettle, just north of Watervliet. The Campground and Canoe Rental falls into Mike’s domain while Jeana still does most of the home-cooking herself, predominantly with local produce and from scratch, as much as possible. Every year, on the anniversary of Amanda’s death, a tribute is held at Ma ‘N Pa’s in her honor, a celebration of life.

Doctors, Nurses and hospital staff join with family and friends, this year on November 27th, to taste one of Ma’s wonderful home-cooked meals. Donations are requested and used to provide Scholarship funds for area youth. $7000 having been disbursed to Coloma High School students in the 5 years since Amanda’s death. The purpose is to help provide deserving youth a chance to proceed directly from high school into college. Additionally the Corey Daisy family has received funds to help them with their financial devastation as the family finds their savings gone to pay for their son’s medical bills due to Leukemia.

The Gilliam Family Campgrounds have had their challenges these past few years as well, as Mike’s health was threatened last year with pneumonia, asthma and serious lung problems. Jeana was plenty scared as she faced the possibility of a life without Mike.

This year finds the remaining family still close together, running the business on M-140, while a new granddaughter makes her way around the family and friends, winning everyone’s heart. The older girls still help out at the restaurant during the weekends and Pa can be seen driving around the grounds in his golf cart.

Mike’s been doing a lot of cleaning up and clearing out this year, ridding the campgrounds of some unfortunate types that sought to rely on the kindness in the heart of strangers rather than make their own way, doing the right thing. Mike finds it difficult to turn away those with sad stories but an honest desire to help those in need, combined with an intent to ‘help those who help themselves’ is bringing about the winds-of-change in the Campgrounds. He’s had to take the bitter pill of ridding out the weeds in the campgrounds in order to make it a safer, more pleasant place for everyone.

Hope to see you out there!