PICKENS, S.C. — Sam Wyche looks good for 71. Darn good. He stands in the garage on his 28-acre property 122 miles southwest of Charlotte, in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains. A couple of days earlier, he got on his bike and rode 19 miles on a path in and around Pickens and nearby Easley. “Man, that felt great,” he said. Not a lot of 71-year-olds ride 19 miles—and he rides his bike about five days a week.
They especially don’t do that nine weeks after receiving a heart transplant.
“This Thanksgiving,” Wyche said, misting up, “means a lot more than any Thanksgiving I can remember because I, by all right … I am about to lose it here…” And it looks like he will lose it.