MAY IT PLEASE THE COURT

I practiced law in Monroe, NC for 37 years, from 1971-2008, when I was 62. When asked why I retired at 62, I say that I only practiced and never got very good at it so I decided to hang up my spikes, or, put another way, to take down my shingle. 

Several years after I retired, my wife Janet’s 1st cousin, Lee Douglas Flowe called me at home about a small legal matter, foreclosing on some property in neighboring Stanley Co on which he had taken a mortgage (a mortgage can be used to secure a debt with real estate in NC, but I’ve never seen one because a deed of trust is used for the same purpose probably 99.99% of the time in NC, but the term “mortgage” is often used in lieu of “deed of trust”) to secure a loan he had made to a friend of his grandson. He had contacted the Trustee in the deed of trust, normally the lawyer who prepared it, who explained the foreclosure process, but his explanation left Lee Douglas (hereinafter [I love these legal, or I guess, quasi-legal terms, used for brevity, that is, one word instead of many, which I’m now using, many that is, to explain how handy they are and how they eliminate the use of so many words, thus aiding brevity {being the sharp reader that you are, I’m sure you picked up on my subtle humor here}], “LD”), somewhat perplexed. 

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