I was born in Augusta, GA on February 24, 1946. Following undergraduate studies at Emory University, I received my M.D. degree at the Medical College of Georgia in 1970. While completing a Straight Medical Internship at the Medical College of Georgia, I was drafted into the U.S. Navy. I served as a medical officer during a year of sea duty followed by a year at the Coronado Naval Base in California. After my time in the Navy, I received my postgraduate training in Pathology at the University of Virginia (1973-1978). From 1978 to 2001, I participated in a private group practice of Pathology in Macon, GA.
From the farms and pastures of the north Georgia mountains, where pine trees grow in the brick red clay, the tradition of storytelling is alive and well. As rustic as a barbed wire fence, as homey as a light in the window, In the Pines is a collection of stories and poems told in the voice of a vanishing people. Funny, poignant, and reminiscent of events and personalities familiar to us all, you will come away feeling that someone in the book reminds you of a person you know. This is not a book about the magnolia and cotillion south, but about the lives of Appalachian people who lived a hardscrabble life at the foot of the Blue Ridge mountains. So, take a journey into the lives of the Appalachian people and listen to the characters tell their stories of joys and struggles, and everyday life in the mountains, in the pines.
When Alex's father takes her to their favorite beach she brings a dandelion with her to make a special wish, but upon arrival she sees another little girl who might need the wish much more than she does..
