The Roots of Our City: Weaving History, Resilience, and Love
I recently had my annual doctor’s appointment in Charlotte. As I was leaving Atrium Health—which many locals still call CMC—I smiled when I spotted a sandcastle emblem on a license plate. Atrium’s logo is the Tree of Life, a symbol with roots in ancient times. But as I looked at that […]
Visiting the NC Transportation Museum
In my last post, I mentioned one of the highlights of 2025 — a “Wizard of Oz” moment —was visiting the NC Transportation Museum, located right across from my grandfather Shepherd’s old watchmaking school. He passed 25 years ago to the day, yet there I was, feeling the connection between the generations. Those closest to […]
Light and Love
My great Aunt Elsie Deaton was a librarian at the R.Y. McAden Memorial Library for thirty-five years. The library is now on the National Register of Historic Places. She was the sister of my grandfather, Max Deaton. They were raised in McAdenville, North Carolina, which is now known as Christmas Town, […]
Aspire and Uncle John
We recently celebrated the life of my great Uncle, John Marsh. Uncle John graduated from Berea College as a Valedictorian in 1954. Berea College was the first college in the Southern United States to be coeducational and racially integrated. Its motto: “God has made of one blood all peoples of the […]
