2013 October Lake Highlands

REAL-LIFE BRUSH ES WITH DEATH

‘ i S u r v i v e d

EVERY WOMAN DESERVES A quick, easy and comfortable MAMMOGRAM.

12

Veg out

Meatless doesn’t mean funless, the State Veggie Fair founder explains.

14 Art insider A cat hospital in Lake Highlands is on this year’s White rock Studio tour.

16 Setting the stage the Lake Highlands Oktoberfest welcomes beloved band, the Old 97’s.

34

Survivors

More stories of escape and deadly encounters from Advocate past

38

Business bits

A new clinic reaches low-income neighborhoods, Lake Highlands town center’s new management and more

‘I shouldn’t be alive’

NevereNdiNg News

The magazine in your hand contains only a portion of what we report

Even though we’re in the magazine publishing business here at Advocate Media, we spend only about half of our day working on our magazines.

What do we do with the rest of the time?

Well, these days there are all kinds of ways to deliver news and information to readers.

For example, you may not know that every day — generally three or four times a day, in fact — we update our advocatemag. com website with neighborhood news and information that happens after one month’s magazine is completed and before another month’s magazine can be delivered.

Restaurant openings, neighborhood business news, crime updates, events you can attend — you can find all of this information at advocatemag.com in our Daily Digest. Because of timing and relevance, much of the daily news information on our website never appears in our magazine, so if you can make time to read both, you’ll know a whole lot more about what’s happening around you.

Don’t have time to check out our website every day? Sign up for our weekly emailed news update, which recaps some of the top stories from the past week’s Daily Digest, along with additional information, photos and videos that don’t make it into the magazine. To sign up for that weekly publication, go to advocatemag.com/newsletters.

We do the same thing with restaurant news and deals, except that emailed digest goes out every other week; you can sign up for that one at advocatemag.com/newsletters, too.

Say you’re a big Facebook fan and like to scroll through news on that site — like the Advocate on Facebook and let us stream daily updates directly to you that way. Same

with Twitter: Sign up to follow our Twitter account, and you’ll always be up-to-date as we report on all kinds of interesting neighborhood happenings and events.

OK, now say you have spare time for reading at lunch or a kids’ sporting event or anywhere you happen to be, but say you left your Advocate magazine at home. We have an app with our current and many of our past issues: Go to the Android or Apple iOS store, search for “Dallas Advocate” and download our app for use on your tablet or smartphone.

Our app gives you an interactive way to read the magazine and also connect with advertisers and groups we’re writing about, since most web links in the magazine are clickable right from the application if you’re looking for a local electrician, lawn guy, veterinarian, Realtor or whatever, you can search for what you’re seeking, check out their website directly from the magazine app, and make your decision about spending money right then and there.

And say your hot water heater just broke and you need a plumber right away: Go to advocatemag.com/classifieds, and there you’ll find virtually all of the local people who advertise in our magazine (and some who don’t) online and available at the click of a button.

Finally, if you’re a neighborhood business, we can help build your website, set up and manage your social media accounts, and continue making sure that you stay in contact with your customers, both existing and prospective.

We’re always working on more and better ways to bring neighborhood businesses together with neighborhood residents, and as I mentioned earlier, we’re spending a lot of our time doing so.

I hope you’ll keep reading our magazine, visiting our website and app, and checking out our social media sites to keep up to date with what’s happening throughout our neighborhood.

Rick Wamre is president of Advocate Media. Let him know how we are doing by writing to 6301 Gaston, Suite 820, Dallas 75214; or email rwamre@advocatemag.com.

DISTRIBUTION PH/214.560.4203

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marketing director: L AUREN S HAMBECK

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director of digital marketing: MICHELLE MEALS

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publisher: CHRISTINA HUGHES BABB

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editors:

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RACHEL STONE

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designers: L ARRY OLIVER, KRIS SCOTT, WENDY MILLSAP

contributing editors: KERI MITCHELL , JEFF SIEGEL, SALLY WAMRE

contributors: GAYLA BROOKS, SEAN CHAFFIN, GEORGE

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Fertility Treatment Seminar

Remodeling & New Construction Talk...

What to Expect in Your Architectural Presentation

In the initial design meeting, we talked about how you live and how we can create a more functional and aesthetically pleasing home for you. Now we’ve taken everything we’ve learned and we’re not going to present you with just one or two plans. Our home design specialist, Rob Little, takes this information and works on researching and creating up to a dozen different designs. This process ultimately results in a presentation of five or six comprehensive plan options. The presentation is intended to give you options for achieving the exact look and functionality you want, and to provide clarity about the consequences of every choice. This process helps you to prioritize the design options that are most important to you within the context of your overall design scheme.

In one design, the kitchen sink may be on an island, and in another, on an exterior wall. The range may be a focal point, or it may be tucked away. In the bathroom, there may be two separate vanity sinks, or two together. The tub may be the focal point, or you may prefer to highlight the shower.

Builders commonly offer one or two design options, but we have found that providing more plans – with great detail –ultimately results in the highest customer satisfaction ratings in the industry.

In the master bedroom, there may be two distinct closets or one larger one. A variety of configurations can meet your stated goals while offering unique benefits. The choice of overall design plans, as well as specific configuration choices enables you to achieve a final design that you truly love.

Once you’ve made these choices, Bella Vista Company presents a revised plan that incorporates all of the choices you’ve made following the architectural presentation. From this point, our interior design specialist, Whitney Dunn will take you to the next phase of the design process, visiting showrooms, viewing samples of lighting fixtures, countertops, flooring, cabinets, and all of the finishout materials that will complete the customization of your one-of-a-kind home.

Want to learn more about creating the perfect remodel or a new home?

Email jan@bellavistacompany.com for our design questionnaire. It’s the perfect tool for beginning to assess what you’ll need to create the perfect living spaces in your home.

For more information on Remodeling or Custom Homes, read our blogs at www.bellavistacompany.com.

lakehighlands.advocatemag.com.

Digital Digest

Reader comments

“Maybe we should, as citizens, start a ‘use it or lose it’ movement. If bond money is unspent after 10 years, it goes away. Too many pots of money sitting around can’t be good for the efficient use of that money.”

—lh_newbie on Lake Highlands North Park improvements underway via Advocate Daily Digest

“I’m excited about this new addition, but still bummed about Gatti’s departure.”

—marciferous on Snappy Salad opening on Upper Greenville via Advocate Daily Digest

“I think a new developer with more than one trick could totally make something exciting there like a private aquatic center or a number of cool ideas — KC pool is crowded and has a ridiculous wait list, another pool would easily be a success on part of the land. I appreciate Prescott’s vision originally but now, they are just building apartments that have zero demand and are not able to think outside the box. Maybe some community meetings to bounce ideas and make it a real community effort. I don’t know, but it has potential for more than apartments.”

—TurnItAround on Lake Highlands Town Center diary via Advocate Daily Digest

“It’s time to cut the cord on the TIF funds and let Prescott sink or swim. If they can’t get the job done, which is apparent that they can’t, it’s time for someone else to buy the property and get things moving. Prescott needs a sense of urgency to get things moving! We have supported their mindless wanderings long enough!”

Casual Observer on City ‘wishes grocer was settled’ at Lake Highlands Town Center via Advocate Daily Digest

“I picked up two cantaloupes at said Tom Thumb. Both so rotten my fingers poked holes in them. They closed the wrong TT.”

—Roger Hohnstein on City ‘wishes grocer was settled’ at Lake Highlands Town Center via Facebook

“Sorry to say, although WE don’t think so, we are TOO CLOSE to other major thoroughfares that retailers want, i.e. NorthPark, Park Lane, and the soon-to-be area ‘down the block’ on the NW side of Walnut Hill and 75 where Dallas’ new Trader Joes will be located.”

—NYerInDallas City ‘wishes grocer was settled’ at Lake Highlands Town Center via Advocate Daily Digest

Q&A: James Scott, Veggie Fair founder

In October 2010, even as Dallasites drooled over the meaty, cheesy texas Fried Frito Pie (taste-division winner of the State Fair’s big tex choice Awards that year), Lake Highlands resident James Scott organized a culinary-based event that was free of meat and animal products. Scott rallied several local vegetarian and vegan vendors and saw some 500 visitors in and out of the Deep ellum warehouse in which he hosted that first veg fest. three years later his texas Veggie Fair has outgrown two venues, acquired participants from around the nation and made a strong case for the fun side of vegan- and vegetarianism. More than 5,000 visitors came through the 2012 event, now held at reverchon Park, 3505 Maple in the turtle creek area. even one of Dallas’ most prolific celebs, erykah badu, has taken notice. A practicing vegan, badu will be the keynote speaker and entertainer at this year’s fair, Sunday, Oct. 20 from 11 a.m.-6 p.m.

Why the interest in veganism?

Initially, about 10 years ago, I became a vegetarian for health purposes. But that led me to research some of the other reasons why people become vegetarian or vegan. Once I started learning about practices of the food industry, which involve a general inhumaneness toward animals and environmentally irresponsible procedures, I became vegan. So avoiding contribution to that industry — the factory farming — became my motivation.

That led to the blog [dallasvegan.com], which I started, and the feedback there let me know there was a community out there of people who felt the same way I did. That’s when I started thinking about the fair.

Unlike, say, Austin, Dallas doesn’t seem to have a ton of vegan options.

Is it difficult to be a vegan in Dallas?

That is part of the reason I wanted to do this. I noticed many restaurants around that have vegan options or potentially vegan options on their menus. Often they aren’t marked that way, but they are there if you look for them. On my blog, I started encouraging a dialog about vegan items in restaurants. Some of the local restaurateurs noticed the commentary and the demand, and some even asked me to work with them on their menus.

What restaurants — ones we might not think about — have vegan menu choices?

One of the big ones that’s been on my radar for a while is Trinity Hall Irish Pub [at Mockingbird Station]. They always had a couple of menu items, but recently they put together a vegan menu. Hacienda on Henderson also has reached out through

the blog and has developed some vegan options.

How does incorporating organic, meatless and/or vegan options benefit restaurants?

There are plenty of vegans out there, but often their families and social groups are not. Sometimes when you have a vegetarian in the group, a restaurant can be ruled out based on what we call the vegetarian veto.

What’s that?

It means that a large group of diners might rule out a particular restaurant based on its lack of options for the pickiest of the group’s eaters. So a restaurant with zero vegan options might lose out on a whole family of diners because of the single vegetarian among them.

Did you create the Veggie Fair as an opposition to the State Fair and its deep-fried, bacon-centric offerings?

No — that’s not it. There was a nod to the Texas State Fair. Initially we called it the State Veggie Fair. But really what you will find at the veggie fair is that vegan and vegetarian food, while it can be healthy, can also be as sweet, fatty and fried, and creative and fun as your traditional state fair food. Our hope is to include everyone. Yes, we are here for vegans and those who are leaning toward that lifestyle, but we really want to get the non-vegetarians out here and let them see that this food can be fun, too. The speakers, the entertainment and the activities we put on for kids, too, will be a draw for everyone. And the beer. Trinity Hall is sponsoring our beer garden. So, no, I wouldn’t even call it an alternative, just another fun thing to do in October.

Speaking of entertainment, how did you score Erykah Badu?

Well, for one I’ve now got a good team of people working with me, like Stephanie Casey — she reached out to Erykah. And because Erykah believes in this, she accepted the chance to help educate and improve the lives of animals. We will have several vendors out talking about ways to do that.

—Christina Hughes Babb Answers have been edited for brevity.

James Scott: Kim Ritzenthaler Leeson

Kay Wyne at Eastlake Cat Clinic: Danny Fulgencio

Where the art is

Every October for more than two decades, artists around White Rock Lake have invited strangers into their homes and studios to view their work, learn about their artistic processes and experience their space.

“The real heart of this, and I think it’s so much fun, is to see where artists work,” says Marty Ray, one of the founders of the White Rock Lake Artists’ Studio Tour.

This year the studio tour is the weekend of Oct. 12 and 13, and it features more than 45 artist studios in the White Rock Lake area (see p. 16 for details).

Ray started the tour 21 years ago with potter Michael Obranovich and sculptor David Hickman.

Originally it was just the three of them and a handful of their artist friends. Now, there are more artist studios on the tour each year than visitors could begin to see in one weekend, and there’s a waiting list for artists, who often wait years for an available space to open up on the tour map.

Arguably one of the more unusual destinations on the tour will be in Lake Highlands at the Eastlake Cat Hospital, where artists Kay Wyne and Sharon Hodges have spent several months painting cat condos.

The new hospital for cats located on Shoreview boasts Victorian architecture, custom art and hand-carved (by Wyne’s father, Charlie Wyne, a retired builder), hand-painted structures for feline recovery and retreat.

“It is whimsical yet also very elegant, with chandeliers and Oriental rugs,” Wyne says.

Wyne, Hodges, artist Lynn Rushton — a longtime tour participant who helped them get in, Wyne says — and six other artists work in a studio adjoining the cat hospital, and they have additional art on display at the Dutch Art Gallery. The gallery, located across Ferndale from the cat hospital and studio, also is on the tour.

Wyne and Hodges met veterinarian Karen Fling at a previous art show. “She bought art and told us what she was working on,” Wyne says. “It sounded too interesting to refuse.” —Advocate Staff

Out & About

October 2013

Oct. 5

Old 97’s and Oktoberfest

Popular alt-country band The Old 97’s headline the annual Oktoberfest at the Lake Highlands Town Center amphitheater. The downbeat will happen “after dark” and not before a day of beer, food, contests, kids’ activities and wide-ranging entertainment. It all begins at 11 a.m. and ends whenever the band winds down. Parking is free. Proceeds from the $5 entrance fee benefit the Lake Highlands Exchange Club and its scholarship and neighborhood improvement efforts.

Lake Highlands Town Center, 7100 Wildcat Way (Skillman and Walnut Hill), lhoktoberfest.com, $5-$10 (price increase after 5 p.m.)

Through ocT 27

hats off to 30

Join Dallas Children’s Theater as it celebrates 30 great years of service to the community with its rendition of Dr. Seuss’ “The Cat in the Hat.”

Dallas Children’s Theater in the Rosewood Center for Family Arts, 5938 Skillman, dct.org, 214.978.0110, $13-$40

STarTS ocT 16 day of the dead exhibit

Creepy chic is so in this fall, as it is every year at this quaint White Rock Lake-area gallery. Each October (for some 27 years now) the Bath House Cultural Center unveils an impressive new Dia de los Muertos exhibit featuring original local, regional and international talent. Curators showcase an engrossing array of artistic tributes to departed spirits in varying shapes, mediums, sizes and tones. White Rock’s own lost soul, the Lady of the Lake, might even emerge for a peek.

Bath House Cultural Center, 521 E. Lawther, dallasculture.org, 214.670.8751, free

ocT 10-26 ‘ h

appy d ays’

Wingspan Theatre Company presents “Happy Days,” which explores the tenuous relationship that binds one person to another, and each to the universe.

Bath House Cultural Center, 521 E. Lawther, wingspantheatre.com, 214.675.6573, $18-$20

ocT 12-13 Artists’ s tudio tour

This self-paced tour gives visitors a peek into the lives and artistic processes of more than 45 artists in the White Rock, East Dallas and Lake Highlands areas. Tour from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days. (More on page 14.)

Start at the Creative Arts Center to pick up a map, 2360 Laughlin, whiterockartists.com, 214.320.1275, free

Through Nov. 7 Arboretum’s pumpkin town

Praise the gourd! The Dallas Arboretum uses more than 50,000 pumpkins, gourds and squash each year to construct its nationally acclaimed storybook pumpkin village, on display through Nov. 27. Dallas Arboretum, 8525 Garland Road, dallasarboretum.org, 214.515.6500, $10-$15, plus $10 onsite parking

Oct. 18-27

‘Ghouls and Graveyards’

Dallas Children’s Theater presents “Ghouls and Graveyards,” a spine-tingling collection of horror masterpieces and surprises brought to life by an all-teen cast from the works of Edgar Allan Poe, W. W. Jacobs and our own Texas ghost lore. Just in time for Halloween.

Dallas Children’s Theater in the Rosewood Center for Family Arts, 5938 Skillman, dct.org, 214.978.0110, $10-$12

Oct. 20

Erykah Badu and the Texas Veggie Fair

Famous entertainer and vegan Erykah Badu headlines this year’s Veggie Fair at Reverchon Park. The event offers a day full of meat-free culinary exploration, plus games, fun and learning opportunities for visitors of any age. (More about the festival and its founder, who hails from Lake Highlands, on p. 12.)

Reverchon Park, 3505 Maple, texasveggiefair.com, free entry

Oct. 26

Neighborhood recycling drive

Lake Highlands United Methodist partners with Bubb Fundraising to host this recycling extravaganza, benefitting the environment, charity and many a home-storage space. From 9 a.m.-noon at the church parking lot facing McCree, recycle electronics, sporting goods, toys, media items, clothing and more. Find a full list of recyclable items at bubbfundraising.com.

Lake Highlands United Methodist Church, 9015 Plano, lhumc.com, 214.348.6835, free

Oct. 26

Moss Haven Madness

Neighborhood elementary school

Moss Haven knows how to throw a Halloween-y festival — tricks and treats, games and costume contests, made possible by the Moss Haven PTA. The party runs 4 -7 p.m.

Moss Haven Elementary, 9202 Moss Farm, 469.593.2200, free

MORE cHARItY EVENtS ON P. 38

Delicious

Special-diet dishes

TriniTy Hall irisH Pub

5321 E. Mockingbird (Mockingbird Station)

214.887.3600

trinityhall.tv

AMBIANCE: IrIsH puB

prICEs: $6-$15

HOurs: 11 A M.-1:30 A M dAIly

Trinity Hall Irish Pub in Mockingbird Station, which offers both vegan/vegetarian and gluten-free menus, is an example of a growing effort on the part of local restaurateurs to serve our neighborhood’s pickiest eaters without turning off the meat-and-potatoes (or, in Trinity’s case, bangers-and-mash) crowd. It initially had to do with the bottom line, Trinity owner Marius Donnelly says, noting that it started with the gluten-free movement. The associated level of ingredient awareness has motivated people to look more closely at what they consume. “As our staff as well as guests became more concerned with what they are eating, we noticed an increased demand for vegan menu items.” Vegan and gluten-free diners can better trust an establishment that offers a specialized menu, he says. “A kitchen that doesn’t do vegan, for example, might use chicken stock for everything; one of the big changes we made involved switching to a flavorful vegetable-based stock.” It also is more efficient for the staff to prepare familiar items, as opposed to arranging offmenu dishes. Donnelly and his team, including chef Oscar Gutierrez, exude enthusiasm regarding their from-scratch Ireland-inspired fare, the vegan/vegetarian menu progression and the constant evolution of the overall menu to meet their discerning diners’ desires. From the hummus and veggie platter to the pearled couscous with oil-and-garlic pan-finished vegetables and the aesthetic vegan polenta and beans, the vegan dishes are hearty and healthy. Even non-vegans who simply want to eat healthier and lighter enjoy these meatless creations, says Donnelly, a native of Dublin, Ireland. The pub, also revered for its small-town atmosphere and ale selection, has partnered with Barnivore to showcase vegan beers. The brewing process sometimes involves the use of fish gills, egg whites or other animal products, Donnelly explains, so now vegans can guiltlessly consume craft beer along with the rest of the crowd. —Christina Hughes Babb

Vegan polenta: Mark davis

1 Thai 2 Go

this tiny grocer/diner offers a plethora of vegan-friendly dishes. Appetizing fried tofu or mun tod (fried sweet potatoes) followed by red curry or pra ram (bean sprouts, broccoli and peanut sauce), any of which one might order with chicken, shrimp, beef or tofu, makes for a meal that satisfies carnivores and herbivores alike.

9191 forest

972.235.3038

thai2goonline.com

2 Mi Cocina

there is beef a-plenty on the Mico menu, but the quinceañera salad offers a hearty meat-free meal with chopped romaine hearts, tomato, avocado, cucumber, pineapple and mango with chile-lime vinaigrette and topped with almonds.

7215 skillman

214.503.6426

micocinarestaurants.com

3 D’Vegan

Located inside Hong Kong Market, this Vietnamese dine-in/take-out eatery is steadily earning a glowing reputation with the vegan crowd. try the bun bo xao xa ot (spicy lemongrass noodle) and crispy veggie rolls. Portions are robust and flavorful.

9780 Walnut

972.437.3939

When you're buying or selling a home, you need a professional to guide you. If you or someone you know is looking for a real estate expert who is genuinely interested in the way you live, please give me a call.

Pearled couscous at Trinity Hall: Mark Davis

Anita Jones! What can we say? Loyal, talented and a little crazy! After all she has stayed at the Artistik Edge for over 17 years! Thank you for your amazing service!

“Brighten up your look with glamour lites and a haircut today for $52 with any level 1 stylist (glamour lites are 10 foils or less)”

sunday closed

monday closed

tuseday 9 am-9 pm

wednesday 9 am-5 pm thursday 9 am-9 pm

friday 9 am-5 pm

saturday 7 am-4 pm

8420 Abrams Rd., Suite 208

Deal or no deal?

Three Wishes Chardonnay (about $3) California

Can a wine drinker survive on $3 wine? Probably, given my experiment with five $3 chardonnays from Dallas retailers. The wines weren’t spectacular, but they mostly delivered value — and what more can someone want from a $3 wine? The biggest problem was not quality, but that the wines were boring. By the fourth night, I was ready for something else.

• Two-buck Chuck ($2.99), the Trader Joe’s private label. This was the weirdest of the five, with lots of tropical fruit (banana even) and very little chardonnay character. It wasn’t bad in the sense that I had to pour it down the drain, but it wasn’t enjoyable, either.

• Three Wishes ($2.99), t he Whole Foods private label. I expected most of the wines to be burdened with badly done oak (chips, probably). In fact, three of them didn’t taste of oak at all, and the oak in the Three Wishes was quite well done, assuming you like that style of wine. I don’t, so it wasn’t my favorite.

• Winking Owl ($2.89) from Aldi. My favorite — a straightforward, 1990s-style jug chardonnay with apple and pear fruit and varietal character for those who remember Glen Ellen. I would buy it again.

• Oak Leaf ($2.97), the Walmart private label. This was sweet, probably a couple of percentage points over the line that separates sweet from dry. Again, not awful, but nothing I’d buy again.

• Cul-de-Sac ($2.96), a private label for Central Market. This was sort of sweet, in the way Kendall-Jackson was in the 1990s, but also tasted like chardonnay.

—Jeff Siegel

Launch food with your wine

Sweet and sour pork

Buy the country-style pork ribs, mix them with the sauce, and cook in a slow oven. What’s better as the weather gets cooler?

Grocery List

1/2 cup ketchup

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup cider vinegar

1 tablespoon mustard powder

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 cup water

Salt and pepper to taste

4 pounds country-style pork ribs, separated into single ribs

1 onion, sliced

1 bell pepper, sliced

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix first eight ingredients together and place in a large Dutch oven with a lid.

2. Add ribs, onion, and bell pepper and mix well. Cover oven and bake for 2 ½ to 3 hours, or until ribs are fork tender.

Serves 4, takes about 3 hours

Ask the wine guy

What’s the difference between Old World wines and New World wines?

Wine made in Europe is made in the Old World style — less fruity and more earthy. Wines made elsewhere, including California and Australia, are New World, are fruitier and cleaner. As with all generalizations, there are exceptions, but this is true more often than not.

ASK The Wine Guy taste@advocatemag.com

—Jeff Siegel

WHAtif...

Aslip, a lump, the doctor’s call the end can arrive in a flash or approach stealthily. Why do some make it when others do not? How does a near-fatal event impact a subsequent life? Our subjects, who have forcibly faced their own mortality, can’t say for sure. But because of their respective experiences, they do tell us with conviction that life is precarious and not to be taken for granted.

Story by Christina Hughes Babb // Photos by Danny Fulgencio, Kim Ritzenthaler Leeson and David Leeson

Near misses, miraculous recoveries and other brushes with death

Whatif...

The Girl Who Fell Down a Well

During summer 1936, 11-year-old Ivan Danhof built a ladder. He used it to help the older men with some construction at the neighborhood church, where his father pastored. He fashioned the crude but functional item out of lumber scraps and rope. When work at church was done, he recalls, he brought the rugged thing home, leaned it against a big front-yard tree and all but forgot about it.

His sister Phyllis, 6, ate lunch in their kitchen with a neighbor, Louis. Unnoticed by the children, two workmen pulled up outside. There to maintain the water pipe that served the Drenthe, Mich., neighborhood’s Victorian-era residences, the men removed a 36-inchwide sidewalk manhole cover before returning to their pickup truck, possibly to retrieve some tools, Phyllis retrospectively guesses.

With tummies full, Phyllis and Louis burst from the house, bounding toward an afternoon of play. It was a warm, sunny day, Phyllis recalls.

Ivan emerged from the house behind the youngsters.

“She was running; then she disappeared,” says Ivan, who is now a medical doctor in Grand Prairie.

That’s when the 28-foot-deep well — which contained some 14 feet of water — swallowed the little girl.

“I scraped down the sides of the concrete walls of the well. I remember the greyness and the gurgling sound of the water as I sank. Then I floated back, got my head above the water, grabbed and shimmied up this skinny iron pipe. I looked up and there were the workmen staring down at me — I’ll never forget the looks of horror and bewilderment on their faces.”

Even at the top of the pipe, she was still six feet from the sidewalk above. Phyllis thought about her brother. The ladder. She yelled instructions to the men.

Ivan was already there. “I heard the screaming. I right away understood what had happened, and I went straight for the ladder.”

It all happened within seconds — the men were dangling Ivan’s ladder down the hole. It was the perfect length. Tiny Phyllis grabbed and rode it to safety.

By the time their parents (along with Louis, who had fetched his mother) came running, their daughter was back on solid ground —

bruised and scratched, crying and shaking, Ivan says, but otherwise unharmed.

A panicked 6-year-old couldn’t have lasted long in that deep, dark, watery well, Phyllis knows now. When she retells the story, people remark how weird it is that the ladder just happened to be there.

“There’s a word for that,” Ivan says. “Providential.”

Phyllis knew her fall was terrifying. For years she burst into tears anytime anyone brought it up. She did not actively think about why she lived. In fact, only recently did she consciously realize she “almost didn’t make it past 6.”

Yet deep down she thinks she knew she’d been given a second chance. In the years following the plunge, Phyllis moved to Lake Highlands, married and raised four children. In her 40s, she went to school and obtained a bachelor's degree in urban studies. She lost her husband, when he was just 48, to a heart attack. She launched a career with the U.S. government investigating nonprofit and charity fraud. When she tired of busting people, she says, she became a foreign-service officer. She enjoyed missionary efforts and worked with orphaned Sudanese refugees in Egypt.

In her 70s she enrolled at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University.

She was ready to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a pastor. It was something she never expected to do, she says. Today she serves as associate pastor at Lake Highlands Presbyterian, where her main role involves building a program to assist church members who are homebound because of medical issues.

She recently led a workshop that required participants to share “significant life events,” so she offered her story about the well. “It really was the first time I recognized what a big deal it was,” she says. People asked her again and again to retell it, so she eventually wrote it down, as clearly as she could recall. Though it happened more than 75 years ago, Phyllis remembers the faces of those workmen peering down at her “so clearly [she] could sit here and sketch them for you,” she says.

She remembers the confusion in their expressions and the assuredness and intuition with which two children responded.

It’s safe to say that a number of people benefitted from Phyllis’s survival — Ivan, for one.

“She is a warm and generous person who has made marvelous contributions to society,” her big brother says. “We all love her very much. I am glad she made it out of there.”

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“She was running; then she disappeared.”

Whatif...

A 40-foot fall

It was nearIng sundown In Marble Falls, a familiar retreat for texas campers. Cameron alspaw and his buddies, all high school juniors, were buzzing after a day of scaling giant rocks. they were feeling superior, Cameron says. “we were the senior scouts on the trip. we were thinking we were invincible. I had already climbed this 40-foot cliff once without the proper safety equipment. we were really just being ridiculous.”

the 2008 Lake Highlands High school grad has a self-deprecating wit that makes him say things like that. It's not such a big deal, he will also tell you, before launching into the dramatic and bloody story of his treacherous fall.

at the end of the day, the trip chaperones asked the older boys to bring in the rappelling ropes. “we had them convinced we were responsible and safe, I guess.” Cameron says.

Cameron reached the top first. “oh, I felt like I was just so awesome,” he recalls with a chuckle. then his hand slipped and he toppled backward. Falling fast. a rock to the head. a scream (his own or one of the guys’ he wasn’t sure). More blows to shoulder, head, face, as he hit ledges that slowed his speed and possibly saved his life. the world went black.

Fellow scout travis Barker was at the base of the mountain tossing the football when Cameron fell. “I heard some noise, looked up, and saw Cameron falling. It seemed like he fell forever. when I got to him, he was pretty busted up. I didn't know if he was alive. But then he kind of sat up. He was pretty out of it though."

Cameron had plummeted some 40 feet. “I woke up with blood everywhere, not knowing what had happened,” Cameron says. "I was in and out of consciousness, convulsing ..."

at once, a crowd gathered. one of the scout chaperones was a doctor. Medics arrived and loaded Cameron onto a Caterpillar, an ergonomic type of stretcher made for maneuvering trauma cases out of tight spots. “they Caterpillared me out of the canyon and onto a helicopter.

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I don’t remember the helicopter ride and I am real disappointed about that, because that was probably cool." But I do remember giving a little thumbs-up as they loaded me on you know, like a football player being carried off the field — and then I guess I passed out again.”

Cameron’s dad, Jon Alspaw, president of the Lake Highlands Exchange Club, wasn’t on this trip. “Thank God he wasn’t,” Cameron

but no broken bones. He now wears a helmet during activities like skiing and can’t go on roller coasters, he says. He suffers no noticeable residual neurological dysfunction, he says, but he has acquired a mutant ability.

“I can say any word backward … I do not know why, but I know I didn’t have it before the fall. It’s just that any word I hear — it started just lying around watching ‘SportsCenter’ while I was out of school recovering — I think about it and can say it backward.”

Cameron can’t imagine how that skill will serve him, and he doesn’t think much about what could’ve been, he says. He always has had a zest for life, and that hasn’t changed. After high school graduation he went to college at Texas A&M. These days he works closely with the local chapter of Young Life, a religious youth group whose members he calls “the teens.”

says, “because he would have been worse off than me. Meaning, yeah, he would have been upset.”

The mountain slashed Cameron’s head open and cracked his skull three times, left him with a swollen black eye, many bumps, scratches and bruises and puking blood —

Just recently, Cameron went rappelling with the teens. Cameron was shaky and a little gun-shy his first time back on the ropes, but the teens, familiar with his story, supported him with unbridled enthusiasm, he says.

“I looked down, and they were all cheering for me.”

“I woke up with blood everywhere, not knowing what had happened.”

It was breast cancer

(Brittany Nunn contributed to this story)

In March 2003, a couple of weeks before a routine mammogram, Old Lake highlands resident Diana Miller couldn’t seem to stop thinking about breast cancer.

She wasn’t sure why, but she had started musing obsessively about what she would do if she found out she had breast cancer — how she would react, how she would tell her husband and her three young children.

“I wasn’t really worried about it, but all these things were on my mind,” she says.

During the mammogram, the doctors found calcification in Miller’s breast tissue, which looks like little flecks of sand that can’t be felt.

“I was a little concerned,” Miller says, “but the doctors were very upfront with me. They said 80 percent of the time they are benign, and only 20 percent of the time they’re breast cancer, and I thought, ‘Oh, that’s a great ratio.’ ”

The doctors said they would do a biopsy and call her later that day to tell her the result.

“So I hung around the house, and I wasn’t really worried about it, but again, all these things are going through my mind,” she says.

Then the radiologist called and told her the news: It was breast cancer.

Miller didn’t panic; rather, she remained calm and asked a lot of questions. “The radiologist was like, ‘Wow, you seem to be really on top of things; are you OK?’ and I said, ‘Yes, I’m fine,’” Miller recalls.

“So we talked for a little longer, and then I got off the phone, walked into the living room, sat down on the sofa and cried really hard for about 10 or 15 minutes — just really sobbing.

“Then I thought, ‘OK, enough of this; I’ve got work to do.’ "

When she called her husband to let him know, he asked if she was OK, and she assured him she was.

“as the days went on, I thought I was so wise and so smart; I had all these questions ready and had everything figured out. I was really proud of myself,” Miller says, laughing.

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“But then I realized it wasn’t me at all. It was really God guiding me and preparing me. When I realized that, it was like a new life inside of me. I felt a peace about the situation because I knew it was in His hands, and what’s a better winning team?”

The doctors found the cancer so early that Miller didn’t need chemotherapy, only radiation.

“Every day that I would go in for radiation, I was excited because I was one day closer to being healed,” Miller says.

Not only was the radiation making her cancer-free, but it also gave her an opportunity to meet other women who were going through the healing process.

“I met so many different women of all different ages and stages of cancer. It ran the gamut, and we’d all be sitting in the waiting room together in these gowns, each waiting to be called,” she says.

“The stories I would hear and the different attitudes, it was very it’s hard to describe bonding, but it was more like we had a spiritual connection. It was a very important part of that journey.”

There were times she felt a little guilty when she met women who had harder experiences with breast cancer than she did, but she was grateful she had the opportunity to be a part of their journeys.

“It sounds really weird, but it really was one of the best things that’s ever happened to me. People always say, ‘How can you say that?’ But it really was.”

Today Miller has been cancer-free for 10 years. She participates in as many breast cancer events as possible, and she continues to bond with other breast cancer survivors.

“It’s a little like being in a sorority,” Miller jokes. “Even if we’re not the same age, we’re sisters and we have that bond. ... if this had not happened to me, I could not serve others in that way. So that has been huge.”

Whatif... A Few Days to Live

It’s nothIng to worry about, Joe Fornear’s doctor told him before prescribing antibiotics for a weird and uncomfortable lump under his arm. when it didn’t go away, Joe dutifully reported for an ultrasound, but days later he had received no follow-up report — which meant everything was oK, right? he remembers that when he eventually phoned in for results, a staffer mentioned lymph nodes. “I didn’t really understand, but it did not come across as anything serious,” he recalls. weeks later, back in front of the family doctor with his sick daughter, Joe mentioned the test.

“‘something about lymph nodes,’ I told him, and he looked at me and then left the room. that was the first time he actually had looked at my results,” Joe says. Immediately the physician sent the 44-year-old father of two for a biopsy.

at the time, Joe was the pastor of a small Lake highlands church. the Pittsburgh native considered himself fit, spiritually strong and, he concedes, “invincible.”

“I have played sports, worked construction and I am from the steel City, where tough men are even tougher.”

Despite the lump, his confidence was high. after all, on more than one occasion, his doctor had told him decidedly that the thing was not cancer.

on Christmas Day 2003, the same doctor called to deliver to Joe a grim diagnosis: stage III metastatic melanoma.

“I was all over the place. First I think I thought about my family and what it would do to them.”

the family — children Jesse and amy, and wife terri — remained upbeat. terri says she really didn’t get it at first.

that is, until her husband’s life began to resemble that of Job, the biblical figure beset with one incomprehensible disaster after another.

“then it all was a blur, and I got by on adrenaline and with help from the church and family friends who cared for our children ... teenagers, basically on their own a lot of the time, for the first time.”

the lump grew so large, Joe couldn’t place his arm at his side.

his father died of cancer — the same type

with which Joe was dealing. Joe was too sick from chemotherapy to attend his father’s funeral.

Doctors hospital-based surgeon Dr. James Khon recalls the battles waged against Joe’s out-of-control tumors and the increasing hopelessness. “Joe is just a great guy, and when he came to me he seemed so young and robust

like a young Michael Landon. this tumor, I whacked it off and it grew back bigger and I cut it out again, but by then it had spread to his stomach. I removed half of his stomach, but it was still growing like wildfire.” after consulting another doctor, Khon determined Joe’s cancer was too aggressive to be treated surgically.

there was a new systemic treatment he could try, but it was a long shot. It would make Joe extremely sick, might kill him, and it likely wouldn’t help. Khon expected Joe to die soon.

“when I sent him off, I didn’t expect to ever see him again,” the doctor says.

the hospital that offered the recommended IL-2 therapy was in Pittsburgh (ironically, the city to which Joe would have traveled for his father’s funeral), and he would need to remain hospitalized because of the drugs' severe side effects.

his Pittsburgh-based siblings were by his side around the clock, which was nice, Joe says, but the treatments caused swift and intense misery.

“I felt like the treatments were killing me. I was very ill. I felt my heart pounding, like a heart attack. I shook so bad, they had to lock

down the bed.”

when he left the hospital after 11 treatments, tests showed the cancer still was spreading rampantly.

when Joe returned to Lake highlands, he snapped his pelvis bone while climbing his porch steps.

“the cancer, now spread to at least 13 sites throughout my body, had caused a crack in the bone. the sitting bone.”

almost immediately, he was back in a Dallas hospital, in excruciating pain, down 63 pounds, praying for death, he says, as the doctors prescribed more powerful and frequent narcotic pain medicine.

“I told the doctors I was worried about getting addicted to the pain meds, and they said they only cared about keeping me comfortable. that is when I knew they had given up on me.”

as the days wore on, and Joe held on, more chemo and radiation became an option, though, again, a potentially fatal one, doctors told Joe.

this time in a houston hospital, intense treatments targeted the masses under Joe’s collarbone, on either side of his pancreas, and in his abdomen, pelvis and elsewhere.

“this round was especially sickening — I vomited every 15 minutes for days,” Joe recalls.

“In 2003 I was given nine more months to live.”

but then, the tumors started to shrink and Joe was able to eat again. his bones healed. his strength increased.

Today Joe is alive and healthy. He has written four books. He and Terri have formed a nonprofit called My Stronghold, which provides emotional support to people with cancer.

When Dr. Khon heard a few years ago that Joe was still alive, he says he could not believe it. “It is nothing short of a miracle.”

No one involved claims to understand the exact reason Joe is still alive, while others who receive the same treatment and pray just as hard don’t make it. Terri says that, spiritually, dealing with mortality is a matter of acquiring a “more eternal perspective.” None of us will be around in 100 years, so the reason is not as relevant as what you do with the opportunity, she says. She adds that before Joe’s illness, she had a weird concept of God. She learned to listen more and be open to new ideas. “I had to ask God how I was supposed to pray for Joe,” she says.

Dr. Khon, too, gained wisdom from Joe’s unlikely survival. “Never count anybody out, and never give anyone a death sentence," he says. "I can offer statistics, but I can’t say for sure what might or might not be possible.”

Joe doesn’t focus on the fact that death eventually will return for him — as it does for every man — but on what he can do with the days that remain. “I don’t know why I made it, and I don’t know when it will come back for me,” he says. “But since I am alive right now against all odds, I am going to make it count.”

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Surviving Katrina

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Lake Highlands alum Jani Jones almost didn’t live to see high school. She grew up in New Orleans, and during hurricane Katrina her family’s home was buried under 15 feet of water. Barely 14 years old at the time, Jones had to swim, carrying her little sister, through horrific conditions to a rescue boat. She describes the days following the hurricane as a chaotic “survival of the fittest” during which she saw things she will never forget. “After the storm, the waters rose … I saw babies in strollers floating, people holding onto each other floating away, people you knew were going to die.” Then they spent days stranded

could see mine. Maybe he saw all the blood and didn’t want to waste ammo — I don’t know what it was — but he didn’t shoot me. He waved at me, I waved back, and he was gone.” Todd lived, but was immediately captured by Nazi soldiers. He spent almost a year in a POW camp. Though it resulted in prison and near death, Todd’s WWII Air Force involvement was fruitful. He met Molly, a Navy WAVES beauty, at the Naval Air Station, and they are still married and living in Lake Highlands.

Gruesome discoveries

2  Tacos  y  Mas If  you're  hungry  for  tacos  to-­‐go,

Sign up FREE From: Lakewood East Dallas Advocate Dining Newsletter <editor@advocatemag.com> Subject: Three mom-and-pop Mexican favs The Lot opening soon Wine giveaway Date: February 11, 2013 7:23:07 PM CST To: chughes@advocatemag.com, bnunn@advocatemag.com, jneal@advocatemag.com Reply-To: editor@advocatemag.com chughes@advocatemag.com, bnunn@advocatemag.com, jneal@advocatemag.com Having trouble viewing this email? Click Advocate Magazine | Be Local For February 12, 2013 lakewood.advocatemag.com Tamales from La Popular Tamale House, photo by Elliott Munoz Three mom-and-pop Mexican favorites 1  El  Taquito  Café This  cozy  spot  in  Old  East  Dallas feels  more  like  your grandmother's  kitchen  than  a restaurant,  and  serves traditional  enchiladas  and fajitas. 5427  E.  Grand 214.823.5872

this  may  be  your  best  bet.  Its crave-­‐worthy  taco  meat  is  what put  this  little  joint  on  the  map, but  it  also  serves  a  variety  of other  Tex-­‐Mex  options. 5419  Ross 214.824.8079

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on the infamous Danziger Bridge, where the atmosphere, she recalls, was “warlike.” Her first year in Lake Highlands wasn’t easy either. Jones recalls students taunting the Katrina survivors who entered the district that year. “They would say we were taking over. I had to fight my way through school sometimes,” she says. Joining the basketball team made life better. Her senior year, 2009, was a banner year — she earned offensive player of the year, gained local celebrity during an exhibition basketball game against the stars from The Ticket radio station and signed to play collegiate ball with a school in Paris, Texas.

Looking death in the eye

Morris Todd had ejected his damaged aircraft and successfully opened his chute, but he was floating into enemy territory. Through eyes obscured by blood from a head wound, he saw a German plane approach. “It got so close that I was face to face with the pilot. I could see his eyeballs, and I know he

Unlike our other subjects, Bob Schellenberg has never needed to pry himself from death’s clutches, but he has encountered the grisly results of what later was determined to be a cult-related double suicide. And that’s not the only time this Lake Highlands mailman has discovered deceased res-

idents. In both instances — about 10 years apart and each involving two corpses — it was an overflowing mailbox that tipped him off. “Both stories, when reported in the daily newspaper, noted that ‘the mailman reported it,’ ” Schellenberg says. “I guess it’s my claim to fame.”

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