Vidalia lawyer writes book after 40 years of practice

VIDALIA, Ga. (WTOC) -Law was the last thing that Duston Tapley wanted to write about after 40 years of legal practice in Vidalia.

Instead, he chose to write a series of short stories focusing on the people he’s met throughout his time as a lawyer. The stories, some sad and some funny, are all collected in his first book, “Ruminations”. Below is an excerpt of Tapley’s conversation with WTOC Morning Break anchor Tim Guidera.

Tim Guidera: How did you choose the stories?

“You get burned out on the law,” said Tapley. “I decided to write human interest stories and that’s what I did.”

Tapley says that the types of stories “...Are, for example, my wife was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. I wrote two stories in there about her and about how that affected the family and how sad it was. She was trying to escape and tell us something and she couldn’t do it and we couldn’t tell her anything.”

TG: What do you think makes all these stories interesting even to people who don’t know the characters in your book?

“I think it’s the human part, it’s their nature. Everybody’s got somewhat the same nature, but I think people feel like they can relate to those people. I wrote a story about a boy named Fred, he and I went to high school together and he called me 30 or 40 years later and wanted me to come and talk to him about a legal matter. He had Lou Gehrig’s Disease. And after I went that one day, I went back every Friday to see him and we would talk about all kind of things. And I always said I would tell him all the gossip in Vidalia and if I didn’t know any, I just made up something. And he loved it. It is fun to read and it will make you feel good and make you feel sad, and I will say this, you will feel something.”

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