Forget Me Not

A resident of Charleston, South Carolina, Willingham fictionalizes a real place for the setting of her novel. Willingham’s Ladmalaw Island is based on the realistic attributes of Wadmalaw Island, one of the Sea Islands located in the Lowcountry that exists along South Carolina’s coast.

Willingham’s choice of flora and fauna creates a setting that is secretive, problematic, and potentially malignant. Wadmalaw is an island that rests between other islands that buffet it from the Atlantic. It is accessible to the mainland by a single bridge. Originally populated by the Wadmalaw Indigenous Americans, it was discovered and colonized by the English in 1670. Like Ladmalaw, Wadmalaw is a minimally populated Island (of about 3,000) and there are no chain restaurants or hotels. Wadmalaw is famous for having the only working tea garden in the United States, owned by the Bigelow Tea Company.

Its climate is subtropical and there are miles of marshland. The salt marshes have a mud made of decaying matter and bacteria that give off a distinctive sulfurous scent. Animals like coyotes and deer populate the island and the red fox is common. Several snakes live in the area, including poisonous cottonmouth and copperheads, like the one Claire is bitten by.