THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 31, 1996 TAG: 9603290222
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 18 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALICIA MAXEY, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
Sheila Glover recalls that day in October 1994, when the insurance notification arrived.
It was nine months before her daughter, Jessica, would die from a brain disease. But the benefit to pay for Jessica's hospice care would run out at the end of the year, the insurance company notified the family.
Suddenly, they were about to be on their own.
``I was completely devastated,'' says Glover. ``I felt like I was being penalized because my child was still alive.''
Now she and her husband, David, are working to keep that from happening to other people - and to keep their daughter's memory alive.
Although she never spoke a single word, 5-year-old Jessica Ryann Glover touched many people's lives before she died last May after suffering from a rare degenerative brain disease. It is an illness that brought with it functional blindness, seizure disorders, an inability to eat or drink and bones so fragile that they were prone to fractures with normal movement.
Sheila Glover, 34, was determined to celebrate her Jessica's life in some way - as well as help other people - and it wasn't long after her daughter's passing that she came up with an idea: to have a dance in Jessica's memory that would benefit EDMARC Hospice for Children. Nurses from the agency cared for Jessica the last three years of her life.
``It seemed apropos to have a dance. A dance is a celebration, and we want to continue to celebrate her life,'' Glover said recently.
She said she knew she needed the help of an organization and contacted family friend Robert Chapman, president of the Ambassador Club of Portsmouth.
The first annual Jessica Glover Memorial Dance will be from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday, April 6, at the social club, London Boulevard and Peninsula Avenue, which is the event's sponsor. The dance also will include door prizes, a silent auction and a raffle of an original painting by local artist J. Robert Burnell. Admission is $25 per person and all proceeds will benefit EDMARC's Buy a Nurse for a Kid fund - the BANK fund.
That is a new joint venture between EDMARC and Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters in Norfolk. BANK provides a terminally ill child with a nurse when health insurance has been exhausted or the child's family is unable to afford a nurse.
That was the case with the Glovers when, on that October 1994 day, nine months before Jessica's death, they received a telephone call from their health insurance provider informing them that their policy's six-month hospice coverage would be exhausted by the end of that year, and the company would no longer pay for EDMARC services.
``It's kind of frustrating when you get into a situation like that when something you depend on stops. We saw there was a need for this BANK fund,'' said Jessica's father, David ``Smokey'' Glover, 39. EDMARC worked with the Glovers, and services for Jessica continued until her death.
``We couldn't be more thrilled,'' said Pam Gallagher, EDMARC's community relations coordinator. ``For two parents who lost a child to take on such an event touches our heart. I think it's an incredible thing they're doing.''
The benefit dance also will allow the men's club to raise money for families with terminally ill children who don't have the income to take care of everything, said member Al Dumire.
``EDMARC helps people cope and set up funeral arrangements,'' Dumire said. ``People who know EDMARC have nothing but praise for it.''
Chapman said his organization tries to help the Portsmouth community as much as it can.
``This is just something we feel we can give back to the community. Knowing Smokey, Sheila and Jessica, it kind of makes it special.''
Chapman said he hopes the memorial dance will become an annual event.
Smokey Glover said the idea for a benefit dance struck a ``good note'' with everyone he and his wife talked to.
``Throughout her illness, there were so many unanswered questions. This is something that can help other people,'' he said. ``This will do two things. This will provide some revenue to EDMARC and keep Jessica's memory with us, keep her on our minds.''
Smokey Glover said there were situations with Jessica that EDMARC nurses helped them ``ride out'' at home instead of rushing to a hospital emergency room.
Three EDMARC nurses in particular - Jenniece Greene, Dotie Butler and Debbie Welt - became like family to the Glovers, Sheila Glover said. In fact, the Glovers remain in regular contact with Greene, Butler and Welt today.
``The dance is a way we can give back a little,'' Smokey Glover said. MEMO: For ticket information, contact Sheila and David Glover at 484-5211. ILLUSTRATION: File photo by CHRISTOPHER REDDICK
Sheila Glover sits at the side of her daughter, Jessica, at their
home in 1994. Jessica died of a degenerative brain disease in 1995.
by CNB