health & wellness report

Neuro Muscular Massage Therapy

LUZ A. LOPERA www.luzsnmtandbodywork.com

Massages not only reduce stress, pain and muscle tension but considerably reduces anxiety, insomnia related to stress, digestive disorders, headaches, and much more. Give yourself the opportunity to enjoy the caring, comfort and empowerment that is only given by a talented therapist.

Call Us today for a healthy life style.

Luz’s NMT & BodyWork

4230 LBJ Freeway., ste.216 Dallas, TX 75244 214-978-7050 214-607-7565

GENERAL ANd COSMETiC dENTiSTRY

AshLy R. COThERn, DDs, PA www.drcothern.com

Dr. Ashly Cothern has a passion for life, faith, family and dentistry. As a patient, you are welcomed by a team of professionals that understands the direct link between your oral health and the rest of your body’s well being. Excellent Dentistry, Comprehensive Care and an Exceptional Experience — They love what they do… Now that’s something to SMILE about! 9669 N.Central Expwy., Ste. 220 Dallas, TX 75231 214.696.9966

OPTOMETRiST

DR. CLinT MEyER www.dallaseyeworks.com dallas Eyeworks

Make eye exams a part of your Back to School check list. Healthy vision is an important part of the learning prices and success in school. Did you know that 80% of what we learn is acquired visually? Regular vision exams will help your child gain the most from their school experience. Call Dallas Eyeworks and schedule a convenient exam with Dr. Meyer.

9225 Garland Rd., Ste. 2120, Dallas, TX 75218 214.660.9830

COSMETiC ANd fAMiLY dENTiSTRY

DEnA T. RObinsOn, DDs, FAGD www.drdenarobinson.com

Four Steps to a Terrific Dental Experience

1. Call and ask us about sedation dentistry options

2. Come to your appointment in our comfortable office setting

3. Take a nap

4. Awake to a beautiful, healthy smile fellow of the Academy of General dentistry 8940 Garland Rd., Ste. 200, Dallas, TX 75218 214.321.6441 had no idea what to draw.”

But when she attended the State Fair with her grandmother, Sallie Buntenbah, she paused at the foot of Big Tex, awestruck.

“My grandma said, ‘This is your magic moment,’ and then I knew that, yep, this was my drawing.”

Lauren worked tirelessly three straight days illustrating a meticulously detailedfair scene that, on the day we meet, stops gallery browsers in their tracks.

Her art teacher at Lake Highlands Elementary, Christen Zajac, was was ecstatic about the piece. With its intensely intricate scene, it looked like something you would see in a book like “Where’s Waldo,” Zajac told Lauren.

Lauren spends several minutes describing the components of the drawing:

“There’s Victoria Justice — the grand marshal at the parade, and here is the parade behind her. And, oh, here is her security. There are Boy Scouts, and the Fletcher’s stand. You can’t have the state fair without Fletcher’s. Mrs. Zajac says that there is a family having a picnic And here’s Big Tex,” she concludes. “He burned down just a few days after.”

Lauren adored her brother, says her grandmother, with whom Lauren spends most of her days. They found immediate help for her following the accident, enrolling her in a North Dallas-based program called GriefWorks, a counseling service for children ages 5-18 who have lost a loved one. There Lauren processed her feelings through creativity. Therapeutic art — among other exercises such as drama, reading and simple sharing — has lifted Lauren’s spirit and propelled her through emotional pain and confusion, Sallie Buntenbah believes. “Everyone who goes through something like this needs to know about GriefWorks.” Even as unrest and sadness surround her, Lauren finds joy in reading, writing and letting her imagination run wild. She penned and illustrated a book set in Hawaii about mermaids and about a big brother who saves his sister from evil, she says. “At the end they turn into mermaids and swim away together.”

She has a knack for comics too.

“I get my funniness from Spongebob,” she says. Indeed, much of her artistic inspiration derives from the boy sponge and his sea-dwelling cohorts, Lauren says, as well as from playfully complex graphic artist Mary Engelbreit.

Now 10 and entering the fifth grade, Lauren already has formed well-thought-out opinions on art. She is unapologetically vocal, as we peruse the gallery, about what she likes (exhaustive realism) and what she doesn’t (abstract oil paintings).

Dutch Art Gallery owner Pam Massar says one of Lauren’s pieces sold for $10 to a collector, a gallery regular. The buyer also gave Lauren’s grandmother $100 for supplies, which they put to immediate use.

Massar occasionally likes to showcase very young artists, she says, and has been successful doing so. She notes that Sharon Hodges, a popular painter, sold her first piece at Dutch Art Gallery when she was 12. Sallie and Lauren are fixtures and have been visiting the gallery together for years, Massar says.

When asked about her future as an artist, Lauren is clear that she intends to explore her options — she is obsessed with styling furniture (“rearranging,” Grandma calls it), meteorology (she is especially fond of WFAA’s Pete Delkus), and Egyptology (we are not sure why, Sallie says, but she is transfixed with Egypt). She wants a dog but hates cats, but she wouldn’t be averse to designing homes for cats.

Though the older members of Lauren’s family painstakingly are fighting for justice and grappling with grief, there appears to be no shortage of love — from her mom, dad Chris Buntenbah, grandmother, big sister Gillian Rawlins, baby brother Lucas Buntenbah, who was born just weeks after Riley died, and her teachers, especially her art teacher. Lauren misses her brother “so much,” but she almost seems to know something we do not.

Following a lengthy conversation, one might surmise the following: Somewhere in that vast imagination of hers, Lauren Buntenbah can conceive of an existence in which happiness does not depend on the behavior of others or the rulings of the criminal justice system. A world where death does not necessarily mean the end of a relationship. Where it just might be possible to turn into a mermaid and swim away with your big brother.

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