Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 13, 1993 TAG: 9304130110
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHLEEN WILSON
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A HUNT TO REMEMBER AT NANNIE BARBARA'S
Charlie Clatterbuck couldn't remember the last time he'd even been around children.But as the 64-year-old amputee ate cupcakes and chatted with 4-year-old Lacee Ayers in a room filled with giggling little people, Charlie decided it'd been far too long.
"No more legs?" asked Lacee.
"Nope. No more legs," he said with a smile to the little girl clinging to his wheelchair.
Jackie Highberger, a nurse at the Veteran's Affairs Medical Center in Salem, liberated Hank Dews, 62, and Howard Kennett, 96, from the hospital to attend an Easter egg hunt, held at the home of her mother, Barbara Quinn.
Charlie, who now lives at the Virginia Veteran Care Center, she picked up on the way.
"I'd a brought them all if I had a bus," Jackie said.
It's the eighth year Barbara - Nannie Barbara, the children call her - has thrown this party. She puts the change she's saved all year into little plastic eggs, which she scatters around her yard on Charring Cross Road in Southwest Roanoke.
In the beginning, she intended this to be an annual event for her seven grandchildren. But then they wanted to bring their friends. And her friends wanted to bring their grandchildren. . . .
This year she filled more than 1,000 eggs with pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters.
She probably doesn't even know who half her guests are. But it's still very much a family affair.
Her father, Estile Hall, 80, was dressed as the Easter Bunny, in white sweats complete with ears and tail, doling out candy. He was wearing a name tag proclaiming him to be "Papaw."
From toddlers daintily dressed in lace ruffles and black patent leather shoes to those of school age, Barbara's guests all but tore up the lawn as they searched the yard polka-dotted with eggs.
But it's hard to imagine anyone having more fun than Charlie, Dews, or Mr. Kennett - as Jackie calls her veteran pals.
"They handle those baskets so well," Charlie marveled as he watched the action outside. "Must be all that experience they get at Halloween."
While just about every room of her house displayed some trinket of Easter, one sacred space was free of the holiday trappings.
Let's just call it Barbara's Tom Jones Room. The walls are covered with framed autographs and photos of the hairy-chested, gold-chain-wearing singer, which she's hoarded for years.
One picture shows a security guard fighting a losing battle with Barbara as she stormed the stage to hand Tom a bottle of champagne.
"He doesn't have a clue in the world who I am," she laughed. "But I've loved him for 25 years."
Sure, everyone teases her about it. But she doesn't care. She thinks of it sort of like a hobby.
"My going to Las Vegas isn't any different than these men who go to NASCAR races all the time," she rationalized.
When Yvonne Carle was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease, she admits her oncologist's young age made her nervous.
"But I put my life in his hands and will never regret that," she said, her eyes filling with tears. Like many of his patients, Yvonne can't talk about Dr. Norm Fintel - who does indeed look considerably younger than his already young 34 years - without choking up.
"He's not just my doctor, he's my friend," she explained.
It was something you heard over and over at the party held April 4 at Olin Hall to honor Fintel, a doctor at Lewis-Gale Hospital, and Gerald McDermott, a religion professor at Roanoke College.
The two co-authored "Living With Cancer," which tries to answer not just the complex medical questions but also the more spritual ones - like "Why me?" or "Why Mom?"
There were times, Yvonne admitted, she didn't think she could go on. "But he was such an inspiration to me," she said.
"Dr. Fintel really cares about you. And I know that had everything to do with how I survived and how I will survive from now on."
While Prof. McDermott was signing books, his two sons were doing some signing of their own.
Suzanne Wolk, who baby-sits for the McDermotts, asked Ross, 10, and Ryan, 14, to sign a copy of their father's book, too.
The boys opened it up to the acknowledgement page where the two authors thank their children for their patience while their dads worked on the book. Neither one has read the book, yet. Neither one is really sure if he ever will. Still, they think it's pretty exciting.
"If he sells a million books, my dad said he was going to buy my mom a Miata!" Ryan explained.
THE PARTY LINE: If you'd like to invite free-lance Mingling columnist Kathleen Wilson to a party or social gathering, call her at 981-3434; when asked for the mailbox, dial MING (6464) and press the key. Then leave a message as directed. Or write her in care of the Features Department, Roanoke Times & World-News, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, Va. 24010-2491.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***