title: Wrightsville Beach: The Luminous Island
author:  Ray McAllister 
description: Ray McAllister has been a columnist for the Richmond Times-Dispatch for 18 years. He lives in Richmond, Virginia.
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  ![9780778314363_A.ai](../Images/9780778314363_A_fmt.png)
  
    
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  Sand Castle Bay
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Har_MIRA_2012_Cab_Blk.ai](../Images/Har_MIRA_2012_Cab_Blk_fmt.png)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  For all of those who’ve discovered the magic  
  
  
  of North Carolina’s Outer Banks  
  
  
  and made happy memories there, including  
  
  
  my own special extended family. Thanks for the good times.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  The television in Emily Castle’s Aspen, Colorado, hotel room was tuned to the
  Weather Channel, where there was minute-by-minute coverage of the hurricane
  aiming directly at North Carolina’s coast, the place that had been like a
  second home to her. Childhood summers there had been slow and lazy and sweet.
  The beach town her grandmother called home was where she’d ultimately
  experienced her first heartache, yet despite those painful memories and
  despite everything she had on her plate at the moment, it was where she needed
  to be.
  
  
  
  
  
  Even before her 