LENOIR, N.C. -- Leigh Ann Walker Young pictures herself in a canoe, floating down a river, but without oars. She's powerless to the current, accepting of wherever she might land. She's refreshed by the ability to let go and have fate orchestrate her way. She's confident that she'll end on the shore, safe and better for her journey.
She's getting philosophical again and getting ready to cry again, sitting in the living room of her mother's home, less than a mile from the grave of her father, Verlon "Rube" Walker, who died of leukemia when Leigh Ann was 3 years old.