My Story
Someday Farms started as a dream many years ago while I was living in Pennsylvania. Almost six years ago, I retired from a successful network consulting career, bought a 130 year old farmhouse in southern North Carolina and started raising animals and gardening.
This story won't be in chronological order...
After high school I wasn't really sure what to do. My high school experience is a topic for another day. I was working at a UHAUL store in Philadelphia, PA and living in a suburb of the city where I'm originally from. I was't sure about college, but took some community college classes. I had a full time job, a long distance girlfriend (more on that later) and a store manager that was toxic.
One day while taking a walk at lunch, I stumbled upon a United States Marine Corps office. I walked in, chatted a bit, and I joined the Marines. Just like that. I was going to start boot camp at Parris Island, SC in a month. I walked back to work and I quit working for an unhappy person. One of the best decisions I've made in my life.
My Uncle Mickey was a Marine back in the day. I admired Uncle Mickey. I reported to Boot Camp at the beginning of May and I graduated at the end of July. Parris Island was hot, but not the hottest place I've ever been.
I was adopted at birth along with my identical twin brother. In 1982 my twin brother was molested by a Catholic priest in New Jersey. In 1992, after years of drug and alcohol addictions, failed relationships and trust issues, my brother took his life in a hotel room in Myrtle Beach, SC. That was two weeks after he visited me in Jacksonville, NC. I will never know the exact reasons and I will always have a hole in my heart where my brother belongs. He has been gone longer than he was alive. He was my very best friend.
On Sunday April 22, 2018 at around noon, three bandana-wearing young black males parked their car in front of my RCSO detective neighbors house, walked across my side yard, kicked in my front door, assaulted, knocked me out and restrained me, robbed my house, all before shooting me in the leg and running away and getting into their car. My detective neighbor stated a few days later that he saw the stranger’s car earlier in the day when he was leaving his house but drove past it on his way into town.
I was the victim of an assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, robbery with a dangerous weapon, and felonious restraint. I’m sure three black males assaulting a middle-aged white guy might also be a hate crime, especially since a few weeks earlier I had a run-in with at least one of my assailants when I told him and a few of his friends that they were trespassing on my property. I believe that the attack on me was retaliation for telling them that.
I was left bleeding out as the bullet hit my left femoral artery. Somehow, through the grace of God, I managed to remain conscious long enough to untie my bound hands and tie a rope tourniquet around my thigh, which slowed the bleeding a little. I then slithered and crawled outside with the intention of getting close to the road and hoping someone saw me and stopped.
I don’t know how long I was out there, as I was in and out of consciousness. A couple, on their way home from church, did see me laying out there and stopped. They called 911 and came over to me and prayed. I remember them asking me if they could pray. I remember trying to open my eyes, which at that point were swollen shut. I couldn’t see but I heard a woman talking to Jesus like they were best friends and finally I heard an Amen.
Looking back, that was the day I was saved.
I woke up briefly in a helicopter which took me to UNC Chapel Hill. Lots of blood transfusions and I was sent home after a couple days.
This April will be five years since that day. No arrests have ever been made.
I was first married in 1991. I am not the type to speak poorly of people, so suffice to say, my first marriage did not work out. The second one didn't work out either since we're on the subject. In retrospect, I am happy with where and who I am now. That wouldn't have happened if I was still in either marriage. I'm not against marriage, I seem to marry poorly, lol. I am a hand-holding and rock your world romantic with a couple splashes of fun and crazy for good measure. I'm sure the perfect woman will wander onto my farm someday and fall in love with the adorable farmer guy and they will grow things and raise animals. At least that's what my second book is about.... (another teaser).