The unexpected path that brought me home

I didn’t grow up in a big city, but I happily said goodbye to one. In fact, it really wasn’t a “big city” when I initially moved there, but it quickly became one overnight with brand new sparkly, cookie-cutter buildings rising up from the earth like stalagmites where historic and unique structures stood the day before. Structures with personality and a story to tell.

Morganton was our halfway stop from Charlotte to Asheville. With two antsy boys in the back tired of binging SpongeBob DVDs, our trip frequently ended in Morganton, where we’d unleash the two whirling dervishes onto the Burke County Courthouse grounds in a spinning fury of testosterone. Afterwards, we’d stroll historic downtown and soak in its alluring charm, often carrying our two dog-tired boys back to the car and heading home, listening to the squeaky sounds of SpongeBob interwoven with gentle snores from the back seat.

Fast forward and the once halfway stop is now my current destination. Call it what you’d like: luck, chance, fluke, surprise, serendipity. I like to think that it’s something else altogether. A stepping stone on a path of wonder that has already been carved out of the deep, unchartered wilderness for me. A path with no illumination except for where I am and where I’ve been. A path that leads to somewhere I “should” go, not necessarily somewhere I “want” to go. A path with purpose that requires faith and trust and a mighty sense of humor.

After his military helicopter and commercial airline piloting career, my dad chose a more proletarian route, earning his General Contractor’s license and building custom homes in the North Carolina Sandhills, most of which overlook some of the world’s most eminent golf courses. Growing up, I’d unwillingly work for his crews during the summer months, often as a consequence for something ill-advised that I’d done during the preceding school year. Oblivious to his motives, the phenomenon of osmosis occurred and I began learning, and actually appreciating, his craft.

Although my professional career has largely been as an IT Project Manager for some of the world’s leading technology, manufacturing, and financial institutions, an unanticipated stone on which I would later walk had been laid at my feet by a master mason.

In the years that followed, I noticed that I could often do myself what many professional tradespeople would normally do for me. Following the lift of COVID-19 restrictions in 2020, I faithfully took a step into the handyman (or handypeople, which I prefer for generalizations) business after realizing that helping others by providing tangible results was inherently more important to me than contributing to someone else’s intangible, to me at least, bottom line.

Then in October 2025, another stone was stepped on and I met a Morganton native who was already standing on it. Married in April 2026, Ellen and I now happily share, in lockstep, our path of faith and trust. She is not only my happily-ever-after wife, but also my business partner: the brains and character of our handypeople company. She’s also darn handy.

Is Morganton my final earthly destination? I’d like to think so. Its enchanting history, exquisite architecture, natural resources, competent leadership, and magnetic personalities certainly make it feel like home. It’s a place where I can happily fit in as a resident while joyfully contributing tangible results as a community handyman. And who knows? I like to think there are larger stepping stones ahead for me here.

So now, when I pass the Burke County Courthouse on my daily “commute” to our Trailhead Home Services office on Collett Street in delightful and familiar downtown Morganton, I catch a glimmer of my two whirling dervishes from the past, zipping and zapping across its beautifully-manicured grounds. And I smile and laugh a little.