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RAIN Temp: 46 °F Wind: ESE at 3 mph Friday, December 13, 2002 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine W3 Magazine Jobs @ Mail Tribune Tempo A & E Oregon CarZone Wellness Connection Real Estate Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend November 28, 2002 Ashley Rucker, front, with brother Cory and sister Erin, is thankful that schoolmates, teachers and friends chipped in to ger her a new motorized wheelchair. Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli Counting our blessings Rogue Valley residents express their thanks on this Thanksgiving Day Keeping the peace When Eric and Karen Rawding gather around the Thanksgiving table with their six children today, they’ll be thinking of the sibling not present. The oldest of their seven children, Brian, 23, is a sergeant with Oregon Army National Guard stationed on a peacekeeping mission in the Sinai. "We’re thankful for our family and our closeness that we have, even though Brian is in Egypt," his father said. "We e-mail back and forth, and get a call from him once in awhile." A 1998 graduate of Cascade Christian High School, Sgt. Rawding is a member of the Guard’s 186th Infantry, stationed at Spartan South Camp a few miles from the Egyptian town of Sharm el Sheikh. One of more than 500 citizen soldiers from Southern Oregon helping keep the peace in the region, he is not expected back in his Medford home until late January. The unit was deployed early in July. Although their oldest son is half a world away, the Rawdings prefer that to his training mission to Saudi Arabia two years ago. "We had very little contact with him then," his father said. "This is much better." The elder Rawding, who spent 10 years in the U.S. Coast Guard, including a 22-month deployment near the end of his hitch, knows there are times when serving in the military can be trying. But he also knows his son is happy in the Guard. "He is in our minds every day," Eric Rawding said. Safe and sound When the Jackson family bellies up to the table today outside of Jacksonville, they will be grateful for more than sharing a fine meal with their close family members. They will give thanks for the table, seats and dishes. And the furniture, walls and roof of their Sterling Creek Road home that was one of 40 neighborhood homes threatened by the Squire fire in July. "We’re thankful that we still have a home, and that our neighbors have their homes, too," says Linda Jackson, a 48-year-old greeting-card representative. The Jacksons watched a 40-foot wall of fire crest a ridge July 18 and flow toward their house on the 9000 block of Sterling Creek Road, but a quick attack by firefighters from the ground and the air helped stiff-arm the fire 100 feet from their home. Linda Jackson believes her persistent brush-clearing around their home over the past several years help quell the flames as well. The fire isn’t something the Jacksons think about daily anymore, but Linda Jackson believes it will cross her mind today while serving her husband, four children and a Japanese exchange student staying with them. "A Thanksgiving dinner with just the family, in our house, is what we’ll have," she says. Modern medical miracle As his family gathers around him in Grants Pass to mark the holiday, Rich Birkmeyer has a deep appreciation for modern medical technology. For the past few years, the Grants Pass man has seen all too much of hospitals. He’s been treated for Hodgkin’s lymphoma and a stubborn tumor between his skull and his brain. Chemotherapy has held the lymphoma in remission since September 2000. Early this year, physicians decided to use a new kind of radiation therapy to try to attack a tumor on his brain. "The tumor had grown onto a vein," said Birkmeyer. "It was too tricky to try to cut it away from the vein." Physicians used "intensity modulated radiation therapy," a treatment available at Providence Medford Medical Center. A radiation machine with a movable head attacked the tumor from several angles, reducing damage to surrounding healthy tissues. Movable "leaves" in the radiation machine focused the radiation beam to minimize the destruction of surrounding tissues. "I had a lot of trepidation from a lack of knowledge about radiation," said Birkmeyer, a former disc jockey and screen printer who’s studying computer networking at Rogue Community College. "I said ‘They’re not gonna do that to my brain.’ " After a series of painless treatments an MRI image of Birkmeyer’s brain showed the tumor had shrunk. "I’m going back into the work force at 55," he said. "I can’t imagine having better doctors," he said. "You don’t have to go to a big city to get good care." Remembering the heroes Last year for the holidays Jason Allen brought his family something special from New York — his impressions of the aftermath at Ground Zero. "I look back at it now, and it’s like it’s not possible. It couldn’t have happened. And here I am looking at it," he said. This year — on the first Thanksgiving he hasn’t been on duty in his eight years as a firefighter — Allen and his family will reflect on the heroes who lost their lives on Sept. 11. Allen, 26, was one of six Jackson County firefighters — members of the Oregon Fire Service Honor Guard — who traveled to New York in late November last year to represent Oregon firefighters at services. Allen, Mike Calhoun, Mark Minor, Mike Hussey, Rob English — all of Fire District No. 3 — and Jerry Ray of District No. 1, planned to attend a massive memorial service in Madison Square Garden. When the service was postponed, they decided to go anyway. "Basically, we were just there for support, and if anything needed to be done, we just did it," Allen said. The group paid its respects at funerals, visited Ground Zero, and spoke with families of fallen firefighters. Allen paged his wife, Torie, each of the four days he was gone, sending her news of the group’s activities. The couple has two daughters, one two years old and the other three months. "You’re thankful for everything you have," Allen said. "I probably have the best job in the world." She will pay the debt You might think Opal Hodgen would be short on gratitude this holiday season. At 83, two decades after she retired from her clerk’s job at the Jackson County Assessor’s Office, the Eagle Point grandmother is looking for work. "I need money," she says point-blank, her blue eyes wide, her voice quavering. More to the point, she needs $4,000, the debt that’s remaining on the car loan she co-signed for her 25-year-old step-grandson. When the grandson lost his job and ended up in jail for a probation violation, the bank turned to Hodgen for the debt on the 1998 Honda Civic. "The people on the phone told me, ‘We can put you in jail,’ " says Hodgen. "I knew they couldn’t but it still upset me." The amount owed has since been cut to $4,000 and Hodgen figures she’s responsible for it. That’s where her gratitude comes in this holiday season. She’s grateful to still have the ability to earn income: Hodgen sells Avon, and crochets afghans for sale. "I’m so thankful that my hands and mind are still capable of producing beautiful things," she says. Hodgen also figures she can rely on her years of office skills. "I’m an excellent envelope stuffer," she says. Dee Anne Everson, executive director of the United Way of Jackson County, is trying to help Hodgen. Everson has asked a few of the member non-profit agencies to find some paid holiday work for her. Hodgen was a longtime volunteer for the Southern Oregon Arts Council. Now, Everson figures, local nonprofit groups might be able to return the favor. This Thanksgiving, Hodgen is grateful for that opportunity as well. "Dammit, I’m tough and I’m going to make it," she says. "I’m going to pay back every cent." She’s a survivor Jackson County Commissioner Sue Kupillas doesn’t like to dwell much on surgeries or her recent battle against breast cancer. But this Thanksgiving, she’s got a lot to be thankful for. At her six-month checkup after her breast cancer surgery in April, she was found to be disease free. The cancer had been diagnosed through a mammogram and biopsy. "It was a very traumatic experience," she said. But with the surgery and cancer behind her, Kupillas said she can think about the things that matter the most to her. "I’m thankful for my grandchildren, my kids and my family," she said. Kupillas, who continues to work full time as county commissioner, said she feels great. Kupillas has also taken up a regimen of Tai Chi, workouts at a gym three times a week and a diet of mostly fruits and vegetables. She encourages women to be vigilant in checking for breast cancer by having annual mammograms and self examinations. Ready to roll — and fast This Thanksgiving, Ashley Rucker is thankful for something that most kids her age take for granted — independence. In most ways, the 10-year-old Medford girl is just like any other fifth-grader at Griffin Creek Elementary School. Ashley loves to paint, read adventure books and, whenever possible, dress in her favorite color, purple. But unlike most kids, Ashley can’t get up and walk out of the classroom when the bell rings. She has muscular dystrophy and must ask an adult to push her around school. At home, the task falls to her siblings or parents. Although the Rucker family has insurance, the company would not pay for an electric wheelchair. So in September, Griffin Creek school administrators, teachers and students took action. Students collected their spare change and took part in a fun run to raise money for a new wheelchair. Parents and teachers did their part by organizing ice cream and bake sales, a chili feed and a silent action. Every person who bought a raffle ticket for a hand-made quilt wrote in Ashley’s name, and the fifth-grader took home the prize. All told, Griffin Creek Elementary raised more than $10,000, school officials said Tuesday. Ashley’s new wheelchair will arrive in two weeks. "I’m happy," Ashley said. "You don’t have to push this one . . . it can go very fast." Making her choices Ginny Pryne, 75, is thankful for many things, but most of all for learning to make choices and be responsible for her life. "All my life I’ve learned that," says Pryne, of Ashland. "If I make a bad choice, then it’s a bummer, and then I have to learn from it." She’s thankful for good health and for family, four adult children and seven grandchildren ages 12 to 22. She’s grateful to spend part of each year in Puget Sound and part living near her daughters in Ashland and her sons in Hawaii. All those psychology tools and ongoing education and workshops she took as a teacher probably play into all this. "Classes and classes and classes," she says. "I finally got it thorough my head that everything is a choice. I may not have a choice in what happens, but I have a choice how I react." Being thankful doesn’t mean no regrets. She regrets never parachuting out of a plane, and more. "Thirty years ago I divorced a nice man because I was bored," she says. "I regret now that I didn’t try harder. We could have seen a counselor." It was a choice. "But I’ve found another nice partner," she says. Women of her generation often felt they had to please somebody, she says. Parents, teachers, husbands. "I’d look at people when I’d say funny things and they’d frown, and I’d say, ‘Oh-oh,’" she says with a laugh. "Now I don’t give a damn." Paying attention pays off For the past two summers Duane Bowman has seen the night sky filled with fire. Last July, flames from the Squire fire were way too close for the Little Applegate vintner’s comfort. The 52-year-old Bowman and his wife Kathy are thankful that work at their Cricket Hill Vineyard and Winery is business as usual rather than in reconstruction mode. "We have a lot of things to be thankful for and we’ve been pretty well blessed," says Bowman who first planted grape vines in 1991 and then moved onto the property in 1994. "We’re probably in a similar situation as a lot of folks around here," Bowman says. "It’s that time of the year when you think back about what’s been going on and getting ready for the next year." In part, the Bowmans are thankful they heeded good advice and did the necessary things that prevented the fire from turning into something disastrous for them. "The county has certain things they ask you to do when build in an outlying area," Bowman says. "If you pay attention and do them you’re better off. If you don’t and let those things get out of control, then you’re going to be in trouble. "Because we had done those things, I wasn’t concerned about hearth, home and health." Heartfelt thanks At a Medford School District board meeting last November, long-time teacher, administrator and consultant Boyd Gibson collapsed — his heart stopped by a potassium imbalance. School Board member Mike Moran and a nurse in the audience quickly started CPR to keep Gibson alive until emergency medical technicians arrived with a defibrillator to shock his heart back into action. Gibson, now 79, said he is thankful for the quick response of his rescuers. Since recovering, he’s grateful for the additional time he has to spend with his family and on projects for the school district. This year marks 50 years Gibson has worked with the Medford School District. He started as a teacher at Griffin Creek Elementary, worked as principal at several schools and finally served as the district’s elementary education director before retiring about a decade ago. Since retiring he has consulted for the district on transportation and district-boundary issues. A Pearl Harbor survivor who served on the USS Tennessee, he also speaks to students about his experiences. Gibson and his wife have four sons who live in Southern Oregon, many grandchildren and some great-grandchildren. The family will celebrate Thanksgiving together this year. Gibson said the family has a standing order that his wife make the gravy because she makes it best. A home for the holiday A warm home and new job make Mike Fennell thankful this holiday. He had been homeless and jobless for nearly nine months. On Nov. 11 he moved into a halfway house in Medford. On Tuesday he started an Ashland job in human resources for people with special needs, a field he’s worked in before. "I had a couple hundred resumes out," said Fennell. "I’ve been . . . just down and out and sick for a long time," said Fennell. "I had hepatitis and other problems. This Thanksgiving I’m living in a warm house." An Ashland resident for 18 years, Fennel became homeless on March 1. His four-year-long job of pumping gas ended a couple weeks earlier when the station where he worked closed. "I went downhill and lost everything in two weeks," said Fennell. "I was living on the ground." Interfaith Care Council of Ashland located the housing. Fennell has been invited to a Thanksgiving dinner in Ashland. "I told one of my room mates I’ve been a dead man walking for one year and the governor just gave me a reprieve." Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright 1997-2002 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy webmaster feedback A D V E R T I S E R S