May 9th, 2002 issue #0114

May 9th, 2002

Emily Dreyfus & Max Walters

It’s 11:30am on a recent Friday, and the tables in the Venable Elementary School cafeteria are packed tight with kindergartners having lunch. Sitting amid the happy chaos, a small brown-eyed blonde child named Max Walters smiles and chats with the children around him while picking halfheartedly at his typical school lunch of chicken strips, tater tots, and soggy peas.

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Jackie Shifflett & Brian Edwards

It was a parent’s worst nightmare. Jackie Shifflett got up early one morning and went in to wake her six-month-old son, Brian. But she could not rouse him.“I was in total denial,” Shifflett recalls. “I changed his diaper and got him dressed before I realized something was terribly wrong.”She rushed her baby to Martha Jefferson Hospital, but doctors there could find no reason why Brian had slipped into a coma.Brian was transferred to UVA as a patient of Dr. Thaddeus Kelly, a pediatric geneticist who still supervises Brian’s care.

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Kathy & Meghan Bambrey

“I spent eight or nine years grieving,” says Kathy Bambrey, recalling the period following her 18-month-old daughter Meghan’s diagnosis with mental retardation. It wasn’t until doctors finally convinced Bambrey there was nothing she could have done to prevent her youngest daughter’s problem that she finally found some peace. “Whatever Meghan has,” Bambrey says, “she was born with it.”

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The week in review

Best overdue apology: At the dedication of the historical marker noting the Supreme Court decision allowing the sterilization of 8,000 Virginians deemed “genetically infe...

What'll fill the grill?

Okay, so we still didn’t have any luck reaching Jamie Darby, former owner/chef of the now-defunct Papagallo Grill in the Seminole Commons shopping center up on 29 North a...

Schools daze

ASKING: $379,000SQUARE FOOTAGE: Finished: 3,300; unfinished: 600YEAR BUILT: 1982ADDRESS: 2671 Cardinal Ridge RoadNEIGHBORHOOD: Whippoorwill Hollow in Western Albemarl...

Something for everyone

I’m like you in some ways. I get excited by the first blockbuster of the summer movie season too, if it’s halfway decent. Not The Scorpion King, which was almost as che...

Guns 'n gentrification

Sharon Vest is trying to pick the lock in her downstairs bathroom, which is mysteriously locked. She can’t find the tool that will open the door, so she’s working with ...
Miller Hall

The Board of Architectural Review grabbed headlines last month when it gave the okay to the destruction of three buildings on West Main Street, including the partial demoli...
Small-town thief

The staff at the Barracks Road Plow and Hearth had always thought there was something strange about customer Vance Brown, the man arrested April 26 for the robbery of Wood ...

Instant connection

Q. Is love at first sight possible, or is this just grist for romantic novels and movies? –S. O’HaraA: Enough couples have described the experience, but it is rare, say...

Bad sign

How distressing that you've decided to stop running Dan Savage's column. It was such a treat finally to be able to read it in a local paper. Not a good sign for The Hook, I...
Boo on you

Regarding Sharon Livengood’s 2 May letter (“Snap Dan’s Pencil!”) and this paper’s decision to ixnay on the avagesay, allow me to call you, the editor of The Hook,...
No progressives here

I can't believe you've already cut Dan Savage's column! My friend and I were discussing the relative merits of C-ville v. The Hook, and the inclusion of Savage's column was...
Thanks for the laughs

I want to thank Bill Ramsey for his cover story on 4/11/02 ["Spinning Trouble: Clear Channel Gets Spanked By the FCC"].It was a laughably ignorant account of the Char...

#9 Dreamin'

I know I’m dating myself when I admit that I was among the millions of adoring young fans gaping at the TV on a Sunday evening as John, Paul, George, and Ringo made their...
Abstract appeal

In both sets of photographs currently on display at the Mudhouse, Charles Winkler shows little interest in the documentary side of photography. It’s photography’s abstr...
Downtown detective

By Elizabeth Kiem
Exploring America

By Mark Grabowski
More than gardens

Fluvanna County has made headlines recently as one of the fastest growing counties in the Commonwealth. Thanks mostly, right now, to the ever-increasing popularity of Lake ...
Os Ciganos

Thursday night 5/2/02 By Amy Briggs
Three's the charm

Five performers slice through the air and land in animal-like poses. Elbows, arms, legs, and backs arch, crook, and ripple. No, it’s not The Lion King. It’s another kin...
Whose fault?

By Mara Rockliff

Full Stories List for May 9th, 2002 issue #0114