This story is excerpted from a workshop conducted in Yancey County, North Carolina in September 2026

Gena Girard:there’s one place I love to go and take pictures, and I’ve done several of them. They would- when I went that day and did it recently for the book cover. I found that there was a wedding going on, and down the creek it was another baptizing.

Speaker 5: Wow! And this was in Burnsville? 

Gena Girard:Yeah. 

Speaker 5: Oh, neat. 

Gena Girard: And there was this deep water. Well, they did that, but it’s just a special place. It’s beautiful. This country is beautiful. I mean, it takes your breath away. You round the corner and come into the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. That was Possum Trot. I don’t remember. 

Speaker 5: That’s the name of the road. Possum Trot? 

Gena Girard: It’s over across from me. It’s near the new fire department, it’s right behind it, and this one, this neighbor of mine lived there, and we went over, and I was like, “Oh my God, look at this place! It was like heaven. I’ve never seen anything. It took my breath away. It has not changed that much. The houses, of course, are modern, but it’s beautiful. And people come down here and see that, and they want to live here. 

Millie Lewis:We have the clean, crisp air. 

Gena Girard:Yeah, 

Millie Lewis : We don’t have smog. It’s clean. You can go up in the woods, and and it’s clean, crisp air. That’s just breathtaking.