As an Accredited Buyer’s Representative (ABR),
my commitment is to represent you, the
buyer, to make sure your home buying
experience is exceptional, and at the
same time culminates with you
purchasing the right home at
the right price in the right
location. Give me a call, and
let m e t e l l y ou t he
advantages of working
with a buyer’s agent. It
can mean all the
difference in the
world in your
home shopping
experience.
Bruce
Bruce Hernandez, ABR, GRI
800-673-9358
Direct Line: 912-510-4777
[email protected]
www.cbrucehernandez.GeorgiaMLS.com
Congratulations on winning the Gold Ink award. You are in
impressive company with Oprah and Seventeen! I’m proud of
you and “our” St. Marys magazine.
Your magazine has made an impact on several people in our
life. We recently met a nice couple from out of town who had
received a copy of the magazine from a real estate agent and
said that she was even more attracted to St. Marys after
reading about us in the magazine.
And my daughter, who is a middle school teacher in middle
Georgia, keeps your magazine in her classroom. She told me
that the kids love it. They often ask her about her visits here.
She teaches writing to eighth graders, so she is always
looking for good examples of writing that are interesting to her
students. She is impressed with the stories and the caliber of
writing in the magazine.
Thank you for all you do to share the good news of our
community with the world and with us!
Sincerely,
Mary Keating
St. Marys
Congratulations on your National Gold Ink Award. The
magazine is fabulous and interesting. We get excited to see
each issue because of the variety of information you provide.
Thank you for doing what you do and for making a
difference in St. Marys.
Joseph & Terra Lucent
St. Marys
14
Where the River Ends
Charles Martin
rom the first few words of Charles
F
Martin’s prologue, “I don’t have good
memories of growing up...,” you know
you’re in for a tear-jerking journey. But
as you glide through the pages of Where
the River Ends, you discover that Martin
is drawing you into an experience
that pulls on many more heart
strings than simply sorrow.
Passion, pride, love, longing,
acceptance, awe, and yes—joy.
Martin weaves his story through
an emotional landscape that stirs
the soul and brings his readers
face to face with the agony of loss
cradled by the beauty of steadfast
love.
treatments, toxic drugs, unending
nausea, and inevitably the end of life
as Doss and Abbie knew it.
Rather than enduring her final days in
hospice care, Abbie begs Doss to take
her on a canoe trip down the St. Marys
The Inspiration
A couple of years ago, Martin
met a St. Marys couple who had
lost their daughter to cancer. He
later learned that her husband
had couriered divorce papers to
her hospital room shortly before
she died. The cruelty struck him
deeply and a few weeks later,
while kayaking the St. Marys
River, a story began to evolve. He
began to ask the question, “What
about the man who doesn’t do
that? What about the man who
hangs on no matter what? The
man whose love is unconditional?”
Thus was born the story of Abbie
and Doss Michaels.
How fortunate we are to have a magazine of such high
quality dedicated to our city of St. Marys. The variety of
articles was so interesting that I read it from cover to cover in
one sitting. I learned more about where I live and was
connected to resources I had not known before. I also found
the articles to contain a higher level of significance than other
regional magazines.
Pat Chiarelli
Osprey Cove
The Story
Thanks so much for our recent copies of St. Marys Magazine.
They are so very interesting and well designed and have helped
us tremendously in planning an extended visit to your area in the
near future for us and two other couples.
Shem Blackley
Charlotte, NC
www.StMarysMagazine.com
www.StMarysMagazine.com
Doss is a gifted young artist with
a trailer park background. Abbie is
a Charleston-bred supermodel and
daughter of a powerful southern senator.
After a decade of happy marriage, Abbie
discovers a lump in her breast that leads
to four years of non-stop medical
River as they had planned at the start of
their life together. They slip away in the
middle of the night and embark on the
130-mile journey to Cumberland Sound.
From the start of their journey,
Martin’s masterful infusion of tension
pushes the reader along much like the
unchecked currents of the river itself. A
looming hurricane, sinister encounters,
and a defrocked priest keep the action
moving in this tragedy-tinged chronicle
of love and courage. The couple works
through Abbie’s “bucket list” with slivers
of hope and humor piercing the
poignant scenes even as one
senses their unavoidable destiny.
Throughout the book, the river
lives as a central character as
strong and present as Doss and
Abbie themselves. Martin paints
a stunning portrait of beauty and
mystery and power—attributes
to which only those who have
navigated the waters of the St.
Marys River can truly avow. As
a former river guide, Martin
possesses a knowledge of and
love for the river that enables
him to bring it alive so vividly
through mystical descriptions
and spirited metaphors. The
river is integral to Doss and
Abbie’s love story—at times a
seemingly insurmountable obstacle,
at times an ally that propels them
into a sheltering path. Clearly,
Martin’s reverence for the river
adds a rich dimension to his
story. “The river has its own
rhythm,” Martin told us. “And
like Abbie, it is more beautiful
in the end than it is in the
beginning.”
Just as Martin is enamored
with the St. Marys River, he also
waxes poetic about the charms of the
town of St. Marys. In a recent interview
w i t h a E u r o p e a n n e w s p a p e r, h e
described St. Marys as “one of the most
beautiful places on the planet. Where
people drive golf carts and everybody
knows each other. It’s a town governed
continued ...
15