On a fall night in the rural South, a six-year-old boy lies beneath a sky ablaze with shooting stars. That moment of wonder becomes the compass for a life shaped by love, war, loss, and discovery.

In this literary memoir, George Spence traces the unlikely path that carried him from an Alabama childhood to the battlefields of Vietnam, from first love to a marriage that spanned six decades, and from commanding paratroopers to building some of the Southeast's most recognizable landmarks. Architectural triumphs and near-disasters, family joys and heartbreaks, enduring friendships, and the quiet satisfactions of a life fully lived are all illuminated by the same restless curiosity that first turned his eyes toward the night sky.

The Night of the Shooting Stars is a memoir of witness, resilience, and gratitude. Told with warmth, wit, and emotional honesty, these interconnected stories explore what we carry, what we leave behind, and those rare moments when the universe seems to lean close enough for us to understand where we have been—and why it all mattered.