Feature/General
Five Athens Parent Updates: Stories that Touched Our Hearts
By Jennifer Lawson
Holiday 2003

The first issue of Athens Parent Magazine debuted in December 1998 with a cover photo of publisher Shannon Howell’s young daughter, Anniston, holding her little black kitten, Boo. Anni is now in the first grade at Barrow Elementary and has a 3-year-old brother named Henry.

Featured in the premiere issue of Athens Parent Magazine was an article about local musician Mark Maxwell, who in 1992 had created a special button in the maternity ward of St. Mary’s Hospital, which is pressed each time a baby is born there. A portion of a lullaby that Maxwell had written for his own firstborn baby then plays across the entire hospital’s public address system. In order to remember that special moment (in addition to helping to calm the newborns once they got home!), a copy of the album – Maxwell’s Lullabies – is also given to the family to take home.

Since that article was written, Maxwell has traveled to 80 other hospitals across the nation to personally install the "lullaby button." Maxwell's Lullabies was recently released as a CD for the public. A classical guitarist who has run his own recording studio since 1984, Maxwell has also produced several other types of albums including Habanera, an internationally-themed album filled with Cuban and Tango influences, Classical Guitar Christmas, and the soon-to-be-released hymn album, Be Thou My Vision. All are available at Borders Bookstore and online at www.firsttune.com. You can even catch maxwell performing live at a variety of venues around town throughout the year. He lives in Athens with his wife Janis, a music director at First United Methodist Church, and their three children: Rushmoore, age 11; Morgan, age 8; and Brooks, age 6.

The 2002 Holiday Issue featured a touching, first-person account of one woman’s experience with two miscarriages. The article was entitled “A Mother’s Empty Arms,” and Watkinsville resident Tammy Wilson was the brave author who wrote:

If my story encourages only one other person, it will be worth it just knowing I could help someone else. How selfish it would be for us to know someone was hurting and we held the words to uplift them, yet turned away! Sometimes we experience things that we cannot understand, but we still have to go through them and continue with our lives. We heal slowly over time and even though we are left with scars, God still gives us strength to carry on.

Happily, Tammy and husband Andy welcomed Caleb Andrew Wilson into the world on August 6, 2003. Although doctors warned the Wilsons of possible urological problems for Caleb while in utero, he entered the world at the very-healthy weight of 9lbs, 2oz. and has not experienced any health problems. Tammy “thanks God for being blessed with Caleb” and tells other parents who have gone through the heartbreak of miscarriage to “be encouraged by our happy ending and to not give up hope: it’s truly in God’s timing, not ours.”

When he was 10 years old, Joseph Stunzi contributed an article to Athens Parent Magazine in order to thank his “angels” – his mother, Wendy, who has heart trouble and wears a pacemaker and her heart surgeon, Dr. Angel Leon. Joseph wrote:

My mom is my best friend, my homework buddy, and just the greatest! I just wanted to say thanks to my mom, who is now my most favorite healthy Angel, and to her doctor, Dr. Angel Leon, who is a very talented “Angel.” Sometimes kids can say thanks in a very special way to the adults in their lives, and I am certainly one lucky kid to have a mom like mine!

Now 14 and not one to ignore important questions, Joseph noticed that his mother’s heart rate increased whenever his father would test cell phones at home for his job. He decided to conduct a study with Dr. Leon’s help to see if there was indeed a correlation between cell phones and pacemaker patients’ heart rates. After extensive research, he found that digital phones affected more patients than analog phones and all pacemakers implanted after the year 2000 were less affected overall. But the story doesn’t end there: in September, Joseph was selected to be one of the top 40 finalists in the nation for the Discovery Young Scientist Challenge Award sponsored by the Discovery Channel. Last month, Joseph traveled to Washington, D.C. to compete in the finals and walked away with the title of “America’s Top Young Scientist of the Year” and a $15,000 scholarship! Go to www.school.discovery.com/sciencefaircentral for more details about his winning study.

Although their names were not given when they wrote about their high-risk pregnancy in the June/July 2002 issue, Katie and Jamie Calkin graciously shared all of the hopes and fears that they were experiencing as they awaited the birth of their first child. Katie wrote:

I have known for three months that my baby has a heart defect that is fatal soon after birth without three open-heart surgeries. While survival rates have improved dramatically in the last five years, two to three out of ten babies with this condition still die after the first surgery. Learning that our baby has a serious and potentially fatal birth defect was the worst moment of my life. I felt shock, devastation, extreme loss and fear. We picked out his name before we went to sleep that first night – Abraham David. That act helped immensely, affirming that he is our son and he has our unconditional love.

Abraham David Calkin was born on May 16, 2002 and passed away on July 6, 2002. In the January/February 2003 issue, family friend Pat Nielson wrote about one of the many ways that baby Abraham was being honored:

Abraham’s death broke our hearts. We will always love him and we wanted to honor him in a beautiful and tangible way! As a result, Abraham’s Aunties’ Quilt Project was born! Abraham lived 52 days and our goal was 52 quilts by mid-December. His aunties in Health Education were on a mission!

The finished quilts were presented to nurses in both the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at Egleston Children’s Hospital in Atlanta and ARMC’s Special Care Nursery for “use on the beds of the precious babies who spend time in these places where things can seem cold and sterile and scary,” said Nielson.

Now awaiting the February birth of their second child, the Caulkins say, “We’re doing well – but we still struggle through every day and some days it feels as if Abraham just died minutes ago. We do have times of joy and we are learning to live life fully even with the immense heartache, but each day is a challenge. It is wonderful to be pregnant but it is challenging to welcome one child and grieve for another.”

Katie continues her work as a Health Educator at Athens Regional Medical Center while Jamie finishes the dissertation for his graduate degree in science education. He is also an accomplished artist and his distinctive watercolors can be seen at art showings and other venues around Athens, as well as on his website at www.jamiecalkin.com.

In the 1999 April/May and June/July issues, Ann Peden courageously wrote about her 10-year battle with infertility, her decision to adopt a child, and her “surprise” pregnancy seven months after adopting daughter Brooke. Almost five years later, Ann has not only quit her full-time job as a nurse in order to build a thriving jewelry business that allows her more flexible hours, but she has also added one more baby to the mix! Ann and husband David are now the proud parents of three children: Brook, age 7; Chance, age 6; and Trace, age 2.

” I’m in heaven,” says Ann. “We’ve been changing diapers continuously for seven years now, but it is wonderful.” The former self-proclaimed “poster child for infertility” now proudly calls herself  “the oldest Mom in the Athens area” and tells anyone who is battling with infertility to “try to stop worrying so much” (as hard as that may seem when you’re going through it!) and to have faith that things will work out in the end.

Ann runs a very “mom-friendly” business, with 10 employees – two of whom are foster parents – and even tailors store hours to accommodate pick-up time for the kids at school. Her jewelry is available in more than 100 stores nationwide and locally at her Charmed Artistic Treasures store in Watkinsville. Visit www.charmedbeads.com for more details.

Jennifer Lawson lives in Athens with her husband, Gil, and daughters Ursula, age 9, and Gwendolyn, age 4,and has been a contributing writer to Athens Parent Magazine for the last three years.