
“We know aging isn’t something people want to think about, but we want to make this day serious while also not being sad,” says Lift Caregiving founder Katie Gilstrap.
Lift Caregiving is a website for family caregivers that provides expert content from VCU Medical Center as well as from local service providers. The site offers advice, a list of trusted providers, guides and assessments for caregivers in need of assistance. There is also an online shop through Lift Caregiving that features items to assist in the aging process, such as walkers, canes and shower railings. “This Saturday’s Modern Aging event is a way for us to bring the Lift Caregiving website to life,” Gilstrap says.
(Note: to read a recent Richmond magazine feature on geriatric care, “A Fragmented System,” and accompanying articles, click here.)
Everything offered at the Modern Aging event is completely free to those attending; flu shots, health screenings, on-site respite care, diabetic meter testing, and advanced medical directive consultation and development will be conducted by medical experts from the VCU Department of Gerontology and Section of Geriatric Medicine, as well as representatives from HCA Virginia Health System.
A two-part food demonstration is scheduled from noon to 12:45 p.m., with Dr. Peter Boling, director of long-term care and geriatrics at VCU, first discussing the benefits of eating healthy as a person grows older. A brief cooking demonstration will follow Boling’s talk. “Too many people are eating frozen or canned foods for a majority of their meals,” Gilstrap says. “This demonstration will have some great tips on how to keep your loved one eating healthier.”
In addition to advice from medical experts, financial advisors and power of attorney consultations will be offered for free, as well. Medicare experts will also be available to discuss recent Medicare changes and cut-off deadlines. “There will be dozens of opportunities for caregivers and aging individuals of all stages to get assistance with health care,” Gilstrap says. “We will even be offering up free chair massages for caregivers, and who doesn’t love a free massage?”
The Modern Aging event is free and health insurance is not required, although presentation of a health insurance card is necessary to receive a flu shot.
Fabergé works — among them cigarette cases, animal figurines, parasol handles, silverware, picture frames and of course the Easter eggs, both large and tiny — represent VMFA’s entire collection (rarely on display because of space issues) and those of other collectors and museums.
Most of the pieces are petite, making display space an important consideration. Because they are placed in large cases on the wall and in the center of the room (allowing a 360-degree view of the eggs created for Czar Nicholas’ family and other significant pieces), viewers can pay attention to the incredible detail achieved by the St. Petersburg artisans. Signs posted on gallery walls give a good sense of 19th-century Russian history and the techniques employed by the House of Fabergé, which was destroyed after the revolution, with many pieces melted down into precious metals.
At the entrance of the exhibit is a stunning diamond tiara that made more than one woman gasp in admiration; you can buy your own (plastic) replica at the gift shop, although that doesn’t seem to be quite as magical as the original. Another noteworthy piece is the Nobel Ice Egg, an enamel egg etched with frost and commissioned by Emanuel Nobel, nephew of the Nobel Prizes founder.
To celebrate the exhibit (running from July 9 to Oct. 2), musicians played Russian classical tunes, and guests dined on caviar, roasted potatoes, borscht and smoked sturgeon.
Amid the opulence of the Fabergé pieces, there is a sense of foreboding; many of us learned in history classes about the assassination of the czar and his entire family, whose pictures are liberally displayed in the exhibition, and who are so closely linked to Fabergé. The museum has achieved something special here, a bit like reuniting a family scattered by war.
But when opportunity arose to wrangle over the proposed budget amendment during council’s Friday work session, council members chose to advance the amendment.
“There was general agreement that the $100,000 would be included in the [proposed] budget,” City Council Chief of Staff Daisy Weaver said late Friday afternoon.
Councilman Marty Jewell had only a day before called for Graziano’s resignation because of her proposal. On Thursday, he told the Richmond Times-Dispatch, "I'm not accusing anybody of anything but it looks so bad."
Weaver said that none of the council members made a fuss over the sum.
Councilwoman Cynthia Newbille was incensed that conflict arose in the first place.
“Kathy Graziano and Mike Herring (the commonwealth’s attorney) are incredible public servants,” she said. “It’s outrageous to suggest that somehow something inappropriate happened.”
But suggestions were not only made, they were flung around, enough so that Herring was seriously worried before the work session. He said that he was concerned that “a war of words might jeopardize compensation for my lawyers.”
The weeklong controversy arose after Hathcock, who was charged with misdemeanor assault and sexual battery of city council aide Jennifer Walle, appeared in Richmond General District Court on Tuesday.
Hathcock was ordered to undergo sensitivity training and complete 100 hours of community service. His case was continued until September. At that point, the charges against him could be dropped under an arrangement worked out with prosecutor Michael Holloman, an assistant commonwealth’s attorney in Herring’s office.
In an online CBS-6 story about Herring asking Graziano for the budget amendment, Herring said, “The subject of the silliness of Hathcock and Walle never came up.”
When asked by Richmond magazine to explain the comment, he said that the case “troubled him.”
“Normally, a person who has been the victim of a sexual battery, they call the police, not human resources, “ he said. “It seemed as if the case ended up in criminal court as an afterthought. I am not passing judgment on Jennifer Walle or Hathcock, but it troubled me that it ended up in my office eight to nine months after the incident.”
Herring said that Holloman’s “agreement is absolutely fair” and that he “didn’t in any way influence it.” He said that turned the case over to Holloman in an effort to “erect a functional Chinese wall” between him and the case.
He pointed out that increasing his budget has been in the works ever since a study was undertaken a year ago to figure out how much it would cost to bring the salaries of Richmond prosecutors into parity with those of their counterparts in other counties. He said that entry-level attorneys in his office are paid about $10,000 less a year than those in the surrounding counties. As a result, Richmond could lose its best prosecutors, he said.
Herring said he called Graziano after trying and failing to get in touch with Ellen Robertson, council vice president. After he suggested that his budget be increased by $230,000, Graziano was not encouraging. He said he realized that he had “a snowball’s chance in hell of getting” the higher amount. “I asked for $100,000 because that’s what I thought I could get. What I am a little troubled by is that people would think I would jeopardize the credibility of my office for the sake of this request.”
More than 100 pediatricians from the Richmond region have banded together with one thing in mind — a free-standing hospital where optimal medical care is available only for children, and all under one roof. Such a facility would have made Leigh Bernard’s life infinitely less complicated.
“My 9-year-old twins, Taylor and Sydney, were born prematurely in a Richmond hospital in 2001,” Bernard says. “Taylor sustained a birth injury, which caused cerebral palsy. I was told she would never walk, to give up, that there was no use in trying.”
Instead of giving up, Bernard has taken Taylor to six states, besides Virginia, seeking medical care she couldn’t find in Richmond. Taylor, who sees six physicians and three other specialists in support care, did walk at 5 but is now relegated to a motorized wheelchair, with the goal of using a walker.
“We don’t have a comprehensive multidisciplinary approach in one place here, therefore, the care isn’t optimal,” Bernard says. “Most children with disabilities also have other issues, like nutrition. That’s why it’s so important to have secondary services available.”
A full-service children’s hospital has been discussed in Richmond for at least 40 years. Dr. Ted Abernathy, who established a practice here 37 years ago, is one of the leaders of PACK: Pediatricians Associated to Care for Kids, formed in March.
“We envision a campus with inpatient and outpatient care, medical offices, accommodations for parents, healing gardens, a petting zoo and a playground,” he says.
“We’re in the process of creating the Virginia Children’s Hospital Foundation,” Abernathy continues. “We hope all of the area hospital systems participate with us to make this dream a reality. The next step will be fundraising. We’ll be reaching out to the philanthropic community and everybody willing to give us a nickel or a million dollars.”
Dr. Melissa Nelson, a Richmond pediatrician previously employed at Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania, stresses the benefits.
“There’s less fragmentation of care, better communication among physicians, nurses, therapists, staff,” Nelson says. “We have quality medical professionals here who care deeply for kids, but they’re spread all over town, and that’s getting worse as each of the individual hospital systems develops their own separate piece.”
Dr. Frank Mazzeo agrees. Currently a pediatric anesthesiologist at St. Mary’s Hospital, Mazzeo previously worked at the University of Virginia Children’s Hospital in Charlottesville.
“I took care of many children from Richmond at U.Va., and when I worked at the [Children’s Hospital of] King’s Daughters in Norfolk,” he says. “Unfortunately, most, if not all, of the inpatient services for children in Richmond is at hospitals that primarily care for adults. I’d venture to guess that adult hospitals in Richmond have a pediatric caseload of about 10 percent, so it’s a very small part of their service.”
Dr. Judith Grossberg, who has practiced in Midlothian for 18 years, believes that a facility serving children exclusively can enhance care while benefiting the community.
“The pediatricians in town give the kids really good care, but we can make that great care with a children's hospital,” Grossberg says. “It will enable us to recruit and retain specialists the community needs so we don’t have to send kids outside the city or the state. It will also be a draw for recruiting executives. It’s a chance to bring the community together behind a cause that’s important.”
Besides Richmond, only three other metropolitan regions in the United States with a population large enough to support a children’s hospital don’t have one.
Dr. Keith Derco, a Richmond pediatrician for 15 years, also wholeheartedly supports the effort. “Ideally, we’d be utilizing all the resources we have in town, creating an environment where the experience is centered around the children and their families, but we’re still in the concept phase. The vision we have is to develop an entity where the child comes first. The most important thing, though, is to get going on the vision.”
©Nancy Wright Beasley. All rights reserved 2011.