As of this writing, I am 78 years old and have lived in the Swannanoa Valley for 16 years. My wife, Su, and I live at the foot of a holler in Swannanoa. Just before COVID, I finished building us a cozy little home by the creek that runs right behind us.
I love nature. I become active when nature does the same. Tropical Storm Helene was such an event. I like the challenge of finding the right language for different events in life, so I wrote a memoir detailing the aftermath from Helene. What follows are my reflections a year later, along with two edited excerpts from that account.
Water and fury in motion
The visual changes and memories left by Helene one year later are still so profound that they continue to penetrate my being. When I stand in my backyard and listen to the gentle gurgle of the creek flowing by, it is still too easy for the memory of water and fury in motion to cloud that moment.
Just a few hundred feet through the woods is where a major landslide tore through the old 4-H camp, now Black Mountain Home for Children. From Day 1 of my memoir on Sept. 27:…