About our Name

Wild Lily School is named for my Grama, a woman who was at once untamable and elegant, with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and adventure. She knew where to harvest wild asparagus and how to cook Poke Salad. She made the best blackberry cobbler anyone ever tasted, and would pull over to pick wildflowers to fill our senses with color and scent and magick. She was a beautiful, rowdy pistol packer who could sing Patsy Cline like no other, and was a grandma to everyone in need of one.

She had an incredibly difficult life and was not without flaws that brought pain to others. From the stories she told me and the way I saw her always with a book in hand, ceaselessly longing to learn as much as she could and travel down every road until the end, I know that had her beginnings been different, she would have loved to be a part of a school that helped people meet their own wildness and reach a connection with nature and the human spirit that would help them heal, and help them to help others heal.

In name and vision, Wild Lily School is dedicated to the woman who taught me to forage and bake cobbler and love the weeds that society deemed unfit for admiration. May it in some way bring justice to her suffering and an opportunity for healing to others who have been victimized, oppressed, displaced, or otherwise stifled in their desire to learn and become their truest selves.

Lily Catherine Peregoy Pugh
July 15 1940 - June 27 2026