One woman came to Henderson on a river cruise and decided to stay. Here's her story.

HENDERSON, Ky. − In just seven words emblazoned on the front, a bright blue custom-made T-shirt gifted by a friend sums up Henderson resident Jackie Calvert’s whirlwind year in the middle of a pandemic.

It reads: “The Lady Who Got Off The Boat.”

For a handful of years after the 2016 accidental death of her husband Steve followed by the passing of her mother (for whom she’d been caregiver), Jackie had been at a “very low point in her life.”

She said she felt like she needed a fresh start to regain her heart and her spirit.

“I began to think about moving,” she said, noting that in preparation she started downsizing possessions in her New Smyrna Beach, Fla., home.

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She also started shopping around for a new location to call home, to the dismay of her Florida friends.

With adult children living in Colorado, it seemed like a natural place to start. She also looked in Chattanooga, North Carolina and South Carolina, but just didn’t find the right thing in any of them.

Then the first attempt to sell her Florida home stalled. Next came news that the world was being over-run with a pandemic.

“It wasn’t God’s timing,” Jackie said. So she hunkered down just like most of the rest of the world, using her skills as a seamstress and quilter to pass the time.

But as the challenges of COVID eased just a bit in 2021, a friend invited her to go on a river cruise that would take them round trip between Louisville and Nashville. She decided a trip might do her good.

It was June 24, 2021, when the American Duchess docked at the Henderson riverfront.

“I got off the boat and walked to the top of the (boat ramp) hill,” Jackie said. “I just got this overwhelming feeling. All of my angels told me ‘you are here’.”

Jackie said she “paid attention to every word” that was said by their bus tour guide that day as they traveled through the streets and on to John James Audubon State Park Museum.

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“I felt so strongly that I had found my place,” she said, explaining that it seemed to meet all of her parameters. It was small, peaceful and near water. “This was like Mayberry.”

Jackie said she spent the rest of her river cruise researching Henderson on line and looking for a potential home.

She return to visit the next month, hopping on a flight from Sanford to Evansville. She had booked a weekend stay at L&N Bed & Breakfast in downtown Henderson where she first met innkeeper Greg Gibson.

This new acquaintance would prove to be a valuable wealth of information to help her connect to services she would eventually need. They quickly became fast friends.

“Greg told me who to talk to,” Jackie said. “Now he is as much a son to me as my own kids.”

She specifically noted one incident that happened on one of her later trips as she prepared for the move.

As she was preparing to head to the airport, he asked her if she had gotten everything on her list done. She said she hadn’t opened a local bank account as she intended.

Next thing she knew she was in the office of a local banker at 9:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning opening an account.

She told a friend: “This town really is like Mayberry.”

By then she had found local Realtor Stephanie Chrisman to help her with house hunting, eventually finding a 900-square-foot house on Sixth Street to settle in to make it easier to look for the house she really wanted. By the end of August, she had closed on the property. She connected with contractor Tina Williams, who has been another valuable asset for renovations and other projects.

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“My house in Florida sold four days after it was listed” for well more than the 2019 asking price that didn’t yield a buyer.

“This was confirmation about what I had decided to do,” Jackie said.

By the spring of 2022 she found and purchased her current residence on North Elm Street in plain view of her Sixth Street house, now used as her sewing studio.

She didn’t know a single soul or have any local connection when she moved to Henderson, but she’s now met a lot of people thanks to knocking on neighbors’ doors to introduce herself and taking long walks in the neighborhood.

“Meeting people has been wonderful,” Jackie said. “Everybody has a story.”

Jackie said she loves Audubon Museum, the other art galleries and the fact that “everybody is so proud of their church.” She learned that from receiving numerous invitations to visit before settling on one that’s gotten her involved with a whole new set of friends.

Jackie said her friends in Florida were convinced that she would go on this moving adventure and shortly return to them.

Then one of her friends — the one who bought her the T-shirt — visited and witnessed firsthand the atmosphere of Henderson, Jackie’s contentment, and how she is sort of a local celebrity for being the “Lady Who Got Off the Boat.”

Her friend returned home and delivered the sad news.

“She’s not ever coming back,” she reported, “and I can see why.”

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Jackie Calvert visited Henderson, Kentucky, and decided to stay