Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 31, 1993 TAG: 9303310070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
One household, two brothers - one the subject of a film that won an Oscar the day after the other died.
"I wish it hadn't happened at the same time," their mother, Judy Gwazdauskas, said Tuesday. "We're trying to separate our feelings. We're happy and sad."
The family gathered around the television to watch the Academy Awards, and cheered when "Educating Peter," a film about 11-year-old Peter Gwazdauskas, was named best short documentary.
That happy event, at least, briefly diverted their sorrow in losing 18-year-old Jim Gwazdauskas, who died Sunday of injuries received in a traffic accident three weeks earlier.
Tuesday was a tough day, too, at Gilbert Linkous Elementary School.
"It's something we've struggled with all day," said Martha Ann Stallings.
Stallings, Peter's third-grade teacher when the film was shot last year, was feeling as emotionally whipsawed as the family.
"So happy one minute, then reality sets in. I've never been through anything like this before."
Briefly, the school's staff discussed not staging a celebration honoring the film, Peter and his fellow pupils.
But "Educating Peter" is a film about overcoming. It details the inclusion of Peter, who has Down syndrome, in Stallings' mainstream class - his first experience outside of special education.
"If that film changes one other person's life, like Peter's life was changed, then it's worth everything we do," Stallings said.
"There's a purpose for everything. Hopefully, the recognition the movie is getting will help the family through a difficult time. That's what keeps me going."
So the celebration went on. The children watched a videotape showing Gerardine Wurzburg, the film's producer, accepting the award and thanking Peter's classmates - on national TV and in front of all those Hollywood stars.
Then cake and flowers arrived. There were hugs and a banner for Peter, now a fourth-grader.
"All of a sudden, we lifted ourselves back up," Stallings said.
Most calm of all was the star himself. "Peter was just being himself, as usual," said Rob Duckworth, the school's assistant principal.
Peter was in bed asleep hours before the Oscar was awarded, his mother said. But he'd already begun practicing his autograph weeks before.
"I thought we were going to win," Judy Gwazdauskas said. "It didn't surprise me in the least."
As she spoke, Peter was outside his home booting a soccer ball, as he often did with his brother Jim.
"Jim was terrific with Peter. They played ball a lot," their mother recalled.
Soccer was a passion to Jim Gwazdauskas, who was injured March 8 when he was struck by a car in Daytona Beach, Fla., and spent three weeks in a coma before he died. He was a freshman at the University of Florida.
Besides his mother and Peter, he is survived by his father, Frank; a sister, Jennifer; and another brother, John.
Judy Gwazdauskas also spoke of her family's concern for other people's feelings about gain and loss. She was thinking of the family of Tom Goodwin, the co-producer of "Educating Peter," who died of cancer during the film's production.
"I know his widow is so pleased that the film won. I know she's feeling what we feel. There's a special bond between us."
The family wanted to make its own acceptance remarks, she said, to acknowledge the staff and pupils at Gilbert Linkous, Montgomery County special-education teacher Kenna Colley, and the county's director of special education, Christine Gilley.
She recalled the day Gilley said she'd enthusiastically relocate Peter into a regular third-grade class.
"That moment changed his life, his whole future. That quick."
Gilley said she appreciated that, as she did the statement Wurzburg made at the Oscar lectern advocating "full inclusion for people with disabilities in our society."
"It's a good feeling. It will certainly help in our county, as well as other school systems who are facing the same issue."
Monday afternoon, before the glitzy Oscar show began, Peter presented the day's best envelope to his family - a favorable report card.
"He's doing terrific," Judy Gwazdauskas said.
"Educating Peter" may be a misleading title for the film, said Stallings. "The film's really about what we learned from him, how the students and teachers who met Peter changed and grew."
by CNB