Burnsville resident Katherine Savage feels a unique kinship with a small patch of ground on the campus of Warren Wilson College. The 5-foot by 60-foot plot was home this year to a crop of flax, a traditional Southern Appalachian fiber plant, which she is helping process into linen that she will someday wear as her burial shroud.
![Melanie Wilder at loom](https://mountainx.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IMG_0530-330x248.jpg)