My first nonfiction book, full of anonymous police stories, remains one of the most popular topics on my website. Police officers from around the country have contacted me since the hardback first appeared more than 20 years ago, to tell me it still conveys what it’s like to be a highway patrol officer on a day-to-day basis regardless of the state in which they work. And that was the purpose of writing a book about police stories – to incorporate one state agency (the North Carolina Highway Patrol) that exemplified officers everywhere, in all types of law enforcement.

Trooper Down! was republished in paperback (Pocket Books) in 1991 and has since been adopted by some criminal justice departments as required reading. In addition, sons and daughters of officers featured in the police stories that were considering a career in law enforcement say the book helped guide them in their occupational choices.

The Police Officers of Trooper Down!

All of which is very gratifying, but it is the police officers themselves who “wrote the book,” by allowing me entry into their world and sharing their true stories on the job. With a signed wavier in hand – I accompanied them at my own risk – I rode along day and night, from the mountains of western North Carolina to the seashore at the Outer Banks, listening, watching, learning, and never once forgetting that truth remains stranger than fiction. Their police stories are strange at times, yet very real.

The Sacrifices as Told in Trooper Down! police stories:

I interviewed families who had lost police officers in the line of duty: a mother who, when she heard the footsteps of someone at her door late at night, somehow knew that her officer son had been killed; the fiancée that learned just before her wedding that her soon-to-be-husband wasn’t coming home; the wife who never failed to tell her police officer husband that she loved him, just in case. As a widow, she said, those three words brought her comfort.

Did You Know?

Since this police stories book was published, some things have changed within the highway patrol organization and some things have not.

• James J. Kilpatrick, syndicated Washington columnist and grammarian, wrote the foreword for Trooper Down! Considered a strong advocate of police officers, he also appeared on “60 Minutes,” and his news stint was eventually parodied on “Saturday Night Live.”
• As of 2006, only 2.3 percent of the NC Highway Patrol police officers were women, compared with less than one percent when Trooper Down! was first published in 1988. Yet their police stories still resonant with readers.
• In South Carolina, a mere 2.9 percent of highway police officers are female.
• In Virginia, 5.5 percent of police troopers are women.
• Nationwide, it is estimated that women comprise only 12 percent of all police officers – not a great deal of progress in 20-plus years.
• Among the worst years on record for police officers killed in the line of duty on the NC Highway Patrol: 1985 when Giles Harmon, Ray Worley, and Bobby Lee Coggins were all killed on routine stops within a six-month period of each other. Their police stories are grippingly told in Trooper Down! from which the title of the book was taken.
• U.S. Senator Terry Sanford called Trooper Down! a police officer book that merits a read by anyone who cares about how our civil liberties are protected through “one of the nation’s most elite law enforcement agencies.”

And yet…I pick up a copy of Gifts from Shane, the book I wrote about him and the process of grieving the loss of a child; flip through the pages where he comes to life again, this special, special boy, and sometimes find myself in tears again, missing him, missing all that he was, and all that he could have been.

Why I wrote Gifts from Shane – Grieving the loss of a child

One of the important things I learned from the loss of my son was that people grieve in many different ways. Some withdraw; others drown their sorrows in drink, work, or drugs. Some engage in uncharacteristic behavior. Some turn to their faith or other forms of support. I chose to write, to put words on paper that would help me understand what happened, process the grief of losing a child, and share with others that – incredibly – there is something good in even the worst thing that can happen to a parent.

Author Thomas Wolfe called the loss of a child “that most terrible wound,” and it is that – a wound that never fully heals. You just learn to walk with it; to make it part of your past, your present, and your future. I also wanted people to know Shane, really know him, what incredible insights he possessed; what intangible, remarkable gifts he left behind, and that he taught me more than I could ever teach him.

Winston Groom, author of Forrest Gump

I wrote to Winston Groom, explaining there was a “real life Forrest Gump,” when I learned Groom was staying in Cashiers, NC, only about 60 miles from Asheville. In the letter of introduction, I asked if he would consider writing the book’s foreword. Groom’s own book had led to the highly successful film Forrest Gump, which was one of Shane’s all-time favorite movies. In about two weeks, Groom’s secretary graciously called me and said that her employer would be happy to take a look at the manuscript. It was as simple as that: I asked; he answered. And once he read the manuscript, he said yes. In the foreword, he said “many parents find it therapeutic to write about the loss of a child; to somehow share their grief with others. But this is a story far deeper, and far more profound. It is a tale of triumph and tragedy that at times elates; at times gives one chills.” I am eternally grateful to Winston Groom for his time and interest in Gifts From Shane, and for his innate understanding of what the loss of a child does to a parent, and to all human beings.