Deep in the Appalachian Mountains, a 1971 Virginia Hospital Logged a Birth It Couldn’t Explain
The road into Mercy Ridge was the kind that made people slow down even when they weren’t in a hurry. Two lanes, no shoulder, heavy pines leaning inward like they wanted to keep the town to themselves. In the fall of 1971, Mercy Ridge, Virginia, still moved at the pace of church bells and shift…