It was South Carolina 'until we die.' Now, they’ll be living in North Carolina.

She says it with as much charm, grace and pleasantry as a person can, but Dee Martin doesn’t mince words on what she looks forward to about her “move” to North Carolina.

“Not one thing,” said the four-year resident of Sentinal Oak Drive, who next fall will be married to husband Glenn for 70 years. “We moved here thinking we would live here until we die, in South Carolina.”

Much was made in recent years of the state line change that takes effect Jan. 1. There was plenty of discussion, even state concessions made, on the gas station just a short walk from the Martin home. How swapping from South Carolina to North Carolina would mean higher gas prices and no selling fireworks or alcohol.

“I don’t buy liquor and I don’t care much for fireworks,” Martin said on Wednesday, just days ahead of the switch. “I do like to buy gas at South Carolina prices.”

For Martin, a far more pressing issue is Glenn’s health. He will be 90 years old soon. His health coverage out of Rock Hill expires with 2016 since the company — the only one Dee Martin can find to make house calls — isn’t licensed in North Carolina.

“He will no longer have a primary care provider, nobody even to refill his prescriptions,” she said. “For him, this could be life-threatening.”

An effort to reestablish a state boundary between the Carolinas has been going on for two decades. It began with issues between York and Gaston counties in the early 1990s. The 334-mile border project began in 1995, and a final line was set in 2013.

South Carolina passed a bill June 2 recognizing the new state line. North Carolina passed a matching bill. The new year brings resolution to an issue several hundred years in the making, as new technology better defines the state line as it was intended back in the 1700s. Back when prominent surveying tools included large trees, stones and other landmarks that may have moved or been lost since.

The redone line is more than geographical trivia, though few residents have such severe issues as the Martins. York County loses all or part of 26 properties at a tax value of more than $21,000. The county only gets nine properties at less than $4,500 in tax value.

Lake Wylie loses 11 properties to Gaston County. Two homes and a barn on Willow Pond Road switch to North Carolina addresses, as do two homes on Fewell Road, a gas station on S.C. 274, a mobile home on Stateline Road and two more on both Woodscape and Sentinal Oak drives. Part of eight more Lake Wylie properties head to North Carolina. A retail store on S.C. 274 and two mobile homes on Sentinal Oak joins a home each on Catawba Cove, Willow Pond, Fewell, Anne Neely and Whitworth roads.

Five homes in the Fort Mill School District head to Mecklenburg County. Caroland Drive and Whispering Oaks Lane each lose two, and Hamilton Road one. Part of two more properties, both homes on Whispering Oaks, make the same move.

Eight properties including houses on Wilson Farm, Ferguson Ridge, Crawford, Windsong Forest and Lloyd White roads, a farm on Twisted Oak Lane and a mobile home and garage on Patrick Road come to into South Carolina from Gaston County. York County also gets a portion of one Lahaina Lane property from Mecklenburg County.

Some residents see little impact.

“We’re still in South Carolina,” said Gayle Wood, who lives on a Hamilton Place cul-de-sac in the Fort Mill area, but is surrounded by North Carolina residents on both sides. “Both our girls go to Clemson, so the in-state tuition is big.”

Wood’s husband Stephen went through an appeal process to make sure their home stayed in York County. When they built there in 1994, the moved their home closer to the road than neighbors and established residency in South Carolina. They have been paying taxes in both states ever since. They have almost two acres in North Carolina and half an acre in South Carolina.

“The state line is in our back yard,” Gayle Wood said. “It runs through our deck.”

One neighbor on the road had a house built farther back off the road, needing a North Carolina address for a government job in that state. Another built in North Carolina for medical benefits available there.

“Everyone on the street except for us are in North Carolina,” Wood said.

Next-door-neighbor Dorothy Reames gets mail daily to the North Carolina and South Carolina address of her one home. Reames declared a North Carolina residency when they built in 1995, but paid 97 percent of their tax bill to South Carolina so the children were allowed to attend Fort Mill schools. The youngest is a senior at Fort Mill High School.

“It’s just complicated,” Reames said. “It’s always been complicated.”

The line revision shouldn’t put too much stress on the family.

“We’ve always claimed North Carolina because we knew we were on the line,” Reames said. “It just brings the whole house into North Carolina.”

Properties range from the subdivision cul-de-sac near Fort Mill to horse farms in Lake Wylie, to sites along the lake. Officials from both states fielded public meetings for impacted property owners.

Even the Martins, hardest hit by the changes, say public officials listened to concerns and were as helpful as they could be. Still, her husband’s “forced graduation” from therapy and home visit services is a tough pill for Dee Martin.

“I’m his only caregiver, and at times it’s difficult to even leave him,” she said, thoughts dancing in her head of licenses, forms and other paperwork she may have to leave the house to sort out in coming weeks.

“I just have to accept it. That’s all. I’ll have to get used to it.”

This story was originally published December 29, 2016 at 7:32 PM with the headline "It was South Carolina 'until we die.' Now, they’ll be living in North Carolina.."