Bryson City Secrets: Even More Tales of a Small-Town Doctor in the Smoky Mountains (38 page)

Readers may be interested to know what happened to Sam and Mickey.

McCauley, Laura, and Sam subsequently moved to another part of North Carolina. Sam completed college and then attended seminary. He now ministers to inner-city youth and gangs. He is a new creation indeed and has become a fine young man.

Mickey's path has been more difficult. He initially was enrolled in a counseling program, but it was like water off a duck's back. His actions and character finally caught up with him. Although he fled North Carolina to avoid prosecution, he was eventually arrested and incarcerated a number of times in another state. Not long after we left Swain County, Mickey's father overwhelmingly lost a major political election in a neighboring county. That loss and the likely embarrassment of his son's arrest were, I suspect, the motivation for his parents and siblings to move to another state. Barb and I, like Kate and Scott, have chosen to forgive him and his parents, and I frequently pray for them.

Thanks to Sandy Vander Zicht, Cindy Hays Lambert, and Dirk Buursma at Zondervan for their skillful editing, wise suggestions, and correcting of at least a thousand errors. However, for any remaining mistakes, I take full credit. A special thanks is due my good friend, Traci Mullins of Eclipse Editorial Services, whose editing skills took my rather raw manuscript and polished it into what you have enjoyed reading. I owe a special debt to Tom Ward at HarperCollins, who labored with me over the final manuscript to make it not only more accurate and precise but one that would protect the identities of both the innocent and guilty. I appreciate Curt Diepenhorst and Terry Workman for their work in creating the map of Bryson City that appears in the front of this book. Thanks to Rick and Deb Christian and Lee Hough at Alive Communications, who not only represent me but also have become special friends. Thanks also to my longtime legal and business counselor, Ned McLeod.

I am appreciative of Mort and Lainey White, current proprietors of the Hemlock Inn (Lainey is John and Ella Jo Shell's daughter), for allowing me to call them and to check a number of facts. Thanks also, Mort, for taking the many pictures that were used by a magnificent artist, Joel Spector, to create the covers for all three Bryson City books. Mort and his boys also provided resources used to create the Bryson City map in this book.

Thanks are due to Rick Pyeritz, John Mattox, and Ken Hicks for spending untold hours reviewing the manuscript for accuracy. I am grateful to Tom O'Brien, M.D., for his review to ensure medical correctness. Thanks also to Pastor Chris Taylor and Elder Doug Jenkins at my home church, the Little Log Church of Palmer Lake, Colorado, for reviewing the manuscript from a moral, ethical, theological, and biblical perspective. I am deeply grateful to Michael Frome, author of
Strangers in High Places
(Doubleday, 1966), for the interviews he conducted with mountain moonshiners that provided many supplemental facts to the moonshiner stories in this book — and to Earl and Marge Douthit, who introduced me to Mr. Frome's writings. Barbara Ogle provided the original script for and detailed information about the womanless wedding, which was actually held in Bryson City on April 16, 1983. Tammy Burns and Debi Wilson were gracious to supply research on Swain County football, politics, and personalities. Thanks to George Ellison for supportive information about the plants of the Smoky Mountains, the history of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and Arthur Stupka.

I also owe a debt to Bryson City and her people. These selected stories represent only a small portion of all that could be told about these special people — our “southern highlanders” — who represent a warm and gentle people. They slowly took me in and welcomed me into their community. Many cried with me and my family when we left. They have since, graciously and warmly, invited us back to visit, share, and reminiscence. This book represents a special thank-you from me to them — for who they are to me, what they mean to me, what they've taught me, and, most of all, for their love and prayers.

Walt Larimore, M.D.
Colorado Springs, Colorado, May 2005

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