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Southern New Jersey residents have reasons to be thankful
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Most people use Thanksgiving to reflect. Last year, Emily Wynne was preparing for a big change.
The 10-year-old girl from Northfield had to use a wheelchair to get from class to class when she returned to school from Thanksgiving break.
But a year later, Emily can move around the house with ease. At school, she now takes the stairs with the rest of her classmates.
“(My friends) said to me, ‘You’re fast on the steps,’” Emily said.
Now 11, Emily has a lot to be thankful for this year. She had received a diagnosis of dystonia, a neurological disorder that hampered her ability to walk. Without warning, muscles in her leg would become very tense and cause her pain.
Between April and May, Emily underwent brain surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. The procedure, known as deep brain stimulation, involved inserting a pacemakerlike device inside her head to control brain signals.
Emily’s dystonia has not been cured, but the doctors seem to think it is under control. The Wynnes have been back to Mount Sinai three times since the initial surgery so doctors can adjust the device.
“If things seem fine, they tweak it a little bit, but not too much,” Emily said. “Most of the time, they don’t do too much with it.”
There was more good news for the preteen. Emily’s hair, shaved for the operation, has grown back. And since she is not doubled over in pain, she has better posture.
“She’s more straightened up,” said her father, Steve.
Emily is taking much less pain medication now, too. And she doesn’t have to visit the nurse’s office to take pills — or for any other reason, for that matter.
“She used to be a regular there,” said her mother, Michelle.
While there are plenty of reasons for Emily’s family to be thankful, Emily is using Thanksgiving to celebrate something that most people take for granted.
“I’m thankful I can walk good,” Emily said.
They have triplets
When she sits down to Thanksgiving dinner, Jennifer Qualtieri, of Egg Harbor Township, will be three times thankful.
She and her husband, John, welcomed their first children in June — triplets Aiden, Arianna and Angelina.
“When we first heard we were having triplets, we sat there for an hour while we learned of all the risks. I was on bed rest for 11 weeks,” she said.
And it seemed that each stranger she met shared frightening stories about other mothers with multiples who delivered prematurely.
“Every single day we worried about the risks,” she said.
But she gave birth to three healthy babies who, at 5 months old, are now keeping the couple busy night and day.
“Everyone at the hospital said Angelina was going to be a little spitfire. She was awake and alert from the moment she was born,” Qualtieri said. “Arianna is kind of the opposite, quiet and mild and sleeps the longest. Aiden is in between. He laughs a lot.”
The couple will host Thanksgiving dinner for the in-laws today. It’s a rare holiday together for this two-career family.
“We’re very thankful and very lucky,” she said. “It was a long time coming.”
Running over cancer
Adam Weiss, 45, will celebrate Thanksgiving today with his wife, Emily, and 9-year-old son, Andrew, at their Linwood home.
Weiss will probably load up on carbohydrates.
He is training for a marathon in December in Huntsville, Ala. The vice president at Wells Fargo Advisors in Linwood is on the mend from treatment of colon cancer last year.
The disease sidelined him, albeit temporarily, from his goal of running marathons in all 50 states. But after surgery and chemotherapy, Weiss is back on the pavement, logging mile after mile.
“I am definitely thankful for my good health. And I’m also thankful for my family’s health,” he said.
Weiss completed a marathon in Indianapolis, Ind., this month. On Dec. 12, he will lace up for the Rocket City Marathon in Alabama, his 24th state.
And he has the same goal that has motivated him through two-dozen other races.
“I just want to finish,” he said. “But I’ll try to finish around the 4 hour, 30 minute mark.”
Getting a pilot’s license
Dr. David Rola, of Barnegat Township, is having dinner with his girlfriend and her children.
But he will probably spend part of the holiday weekend daydreaming about flying.
On Aug. 16, 2008, Rola crashed his plane while practicing solo landings at the Woodbine Municipal Airport. The student pilot inadvertently bounced his plane off the runway and crashed in a field, shearing off the plane’s propeller and smashing its wing and landing gear.
Rola was not seriously injured, but his plane was destroyed.
Despite the scary crash and the resulting investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, Rola was undeterred. He used the insurance money to buy a new plane. Three months later, he resumed his flight training.
And on Aug. 16 — a year to the day of the crash — Rola earned his wings as a licensed pilot.
This weekend, Rola hopes to fly from Woodbine to Lancaster, Pa., to visit an old college friend. And he has future destinations in mind, including the scenic Outer Banks of North Carolina.
“I’m extremely thankful. I got a bigger kick out of getting my pilot’s license than my medical degree,” he said.
Beauty salon’s repair
Daily life has returned to normal in Kathy Janicki’s beauty salon in Middle Township.
Kathy’s Hairport sits in a strip mall off busy Route 47 in Cape May County’s retail hub. On June 30, a man who was picking up his wife and daughter lost control of his car and plowed through the front of the salon.
Five people were injured.
Several local hair salons came to the rescue, giving Janicki’s employees chair space while her shop was repaired.
“We’re thankful our employees are healed and we’re back to work in our new salon,” Janicki said.
The hairdressers kept their good humor throughout the ordeal.
The shop still has a sign out front: No drive-thru haircuts.
Contact Michael Miller:
609-463-6712
Contact Ben Leach:
609-272-7261
Posted in TOP THREE on Wednesday, November 25, 2009 10:25 pm Updated: 10:38 pm.
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