All Heart

By Liesel Schmidt

Heart disease is a diagnosis that’s devastating at any age, but even more so when that diagnosis is being given to a baby or a child. These years are a time that should be filled with hope and joy, with laughter and innocence, with learning and exploring and discovering, as the whole world is new and big and limitless with possibility. It’s a time when the future is boundless and an entire lifetime has yet to be lived, and the biggest worry is monsters under the bed. But this condition has a huge impact on everything, turning the monsters under the bed real and robbing these tiny ones of what their childhood should be.

For the families of children with congenital heart defects (CHD), sometimes hope seems so far out of reach, due to lack of access to specialized medical care, either financially or logistically. In 2000, Dr. Chip Oswalt and Ray Wilkerson took the burden upon themselves to do something to address that need and founded HeartGift in Austin, Texas. “Dr. Oswalt met two children who needed heart surgery while he was on a trip to Kosovo,” explains Executive Director of HeartGift Louisiana Stephanie Berault. “He found a way to get them to the U.S. for surgery, but he knew after that experience that he could do much more to help other children so desperately in need. For the first several years, all surgeries were performed at Dell Children's Hospital in Austin. What Chip and Ray soon realized, however, was that the only way to help more children was to expand to other cities.”

To widen their reach, HeartGift started a chapter in San Antonio in 2008, and both Houston and Louisiana were established in 2010. In Louisiana, HeartGift partners with Children's Hospital New Orleans to provide the surgeries at no cost to the child's family. Patients are screened by a medical selection committee at the hospital to determine which children can be helped with one surgery. In addition to providing medical care, HeartGift coordinates travel and recruits local volunteers to provide housing, transportation, translation, meals and companionship during the four to five week period required for the child and one parent or caregiver to stay in the U.S.

“Every year, over one million children in the world are born with a congenital heart disease—the most common of all birth defects— and sadly, 93 percent of them will lack access to adequate medical care,” says Berault. “HeartGift was founded to address this inequity, as we provide life-saving heart surgery to children living in parts of the world without access to specialized medical care. Since it was founded in 2000, HeartGift has served over 600 children from 34 countries in Africa, Asia, Central and South America. The 76th child to receive surgery in Louisiana is recovering and preparing to return home to the Philippines by the end of the year.”

Despite the incredibly important work that it does, HeartGift does not receive any government funding. All funds are received from grants, events, individual and corporate donations, and that generosity is relied upon to continue their work. “The money we receive from our donors allows local supporters to make a global impact,” says Berault.

Furthering that global impact has necessitated expanding international partnerships, and during the global shut-down of COVID-19, HeartGift used the time to facilitate expansion of their international partnerships and find ways to treat more children closer to where they live. “This year, we were able to help 200 children throughout the world,” says Berault. “Next year, we plan to double that number, and 400 children will receive care through HeartGift in the US, Asia, Africa, Central and South America.”

The Northshore Home Builders Golf Tournament at Beau Chene Country Club was a great success. Many people came out to play the 4-person golf scramble for a good cause. Participants enjoyed some food, drinks, contests and prizes, along with a chance to donate to the Toy Drive.

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Much like the American actress turned interior designer and author Elsie de Wolfe, Melanie Martin has built her life on making things beautiful. She loves to live among beautiful things herself, and that sensibility has made her a well-known interior designer throughout the Gulf South over the past three decades. A career that has seen her mark left on some very prestigious projects. But none is more personal, of course, than her own home on Ono Island.

With an architectural style that she describes as “edgy,” the four bedroom, five bath home is a juxtaposition of modern and traditional, with elements that marry the two polar opposites with ease as well as a deft understanding of how to make them work in concert, rather than seeming to clash. The two-story home is a study of light and angles, with a multitude of windows inset into the cream stucco façade, which, barring Martin’s own description of the architecture, might otherwise be classified as transitional. It follows her ethos of bringing in elements of both old and new, which can be seen in high relief throughout the interior of spaces—which, naturally, bear her finger prints in every single element.

Built by Loper Construction with architecture by McCollough Architecture, the construction was completed in 2020. The home is set right on Old River and offers a spectacular view of the Gulf of Mexico and Perdido Key across the water—something which the banks of windows at the back of the home capitalize on. Lush and almost tropical in feel, the surrounding landscape offers the perfect canvas for the home itself as well as the glittering pool that seems almost dropped into a carpet of grass—which is actually artificial turf. “I wanted to avoid the typical concrete or stone surrounding the pool, which gets extremely hot in the sun,” explains Martin, who, along with architect Stead McCollough and builder Chad Loper, is part of what has become known as the Dream Team because of the many high-end projects on which they have collaborated. “Artificial turf is much easier to walk on, and there is none of the maintenance required of a natural lawn.”

Inside, a neutral palette of creams and whites offer a blank canvas that allows color to stand out and give space for details to shine. Overhead, massive wooden beams run along the ceiling and break up the otherwise unremarkable expanse of white. Facing out toward a wall of telescoping glass doors that open out onto the patio, the kitchen that “doesn’t look like a kitchen,” is set unobtrusively into the open concept living spaces. Created to look more like part of the furniture, the dark custom cabinetry seamlessly hides a refrigerator and the other appliances common to a kitchen, only hinting at its purpose through a range top and, inset into a sprawling quartz island, a sink with brushed gold fixtures that echo the gold tones of the duo of abstract pendant lamps that seem to hover overhead. A bank of white cabinetry matches that of the center island, giving the space that juxtaposition of light and dark that Martin so loves to explore.

There are touches—a massive tortoise shell, an antique door made into a table and set on a Lucite base that gives it the look of floating in the air, chandeliers sourced from her travels—that all have a personal story for Martin. They lend to the layering of the spaces, giving it a depth and dimension that cannot be found in anything picked off a showroom floor. “When I design a space, I use pieces that are collected, mixing styles and textures and finishes so that it’s completely unique and unlike anything you would find in a typical furniture store,” says Martin. Part of that also comes from the art, which Martin features with great pride throughout her home, pieces painted and created by her late son, Mikall.

The bedrooms are equally attended to, of course, with a room for her three granddaughters that holds three queen-sized beds and special photos that have been enlarged and printed on canvas above them. “The girls absolutely love their room,” says Martin, whose affection is obvious in her voice.

The master suite is fit for the queen of the house and takes absolute advantage of the home’s location. A completely open space, the bedroom flows into the ensuite, which opens out onto a second-story deck, courtesy of a wall of telescoping glass doors that match those on the floor below. “It’s almost like bathing outside,” Martin explains of the absolute openness of the space. Luxurious detailing and finishes give this a sanctuary feel, an escape from the everyday that make it all the more appealing. Closets flanking the space provide capacious storage, and a morning bar offers the perfect way to wake up and face the day.

With its dream-worthy locale and a design that is every bit as livable as it is worthy of a glossy magazine spread, Martin’s Ono Island home is just that: home. It’s beauty filled with beauty— Martin’s happy place.