Features

It’s been almost 30 years since Pat Wilson graduated from Williston High School, but the boy who became the man Jim Pitt has never forgotten the town, community, school and friends that helped shape his character.

Pitt, an actor who plays a space shuttle captain in James Cameron’s Avatar that opens Friday, dropped in last week to catch up with old friends and remind people he is still the person they knew.

Since 1969 Ethel Penny has been feeding the patients and staff at Nature Coast Hospital.

Last week the tables turned and someone provided refreshments for her to honor her 40 years of service and dedication.

Penny, a Raleigh resident, heard of the job opening from a friend, and since she had some restaurant experience, she applied.

The rest is, as they say, history, as she worked her way up from an aide to a cook and even a manager–a position she held for 10 years.

It’s a rare person who reaches the age of 60 without having experienced at least one life-altering misfortune. Even though he doesn’t say as much, 61- year-old Luigi Piccola seems to bear this reality in mind as he considers his own difficult circumstances.

In a fall a year ago, Luigi broke his hip and damaged his knee.

After leaving the hospital, he went first to Parklands Rehab & Nursing Center in Gainesville, then transferred here to Williston Rehab.

Three miles from Williston off a bumpy hilly road, a passage through scrub and pasture leads the unsuspecting traveler to the utopian sanctuary that Dr. Raymond Webber calls home.

More than 400 species of plants thrive on his 100-acre bit of paradise that has been more than 16 years in the making.

“Not many people in Florida have their house built into the side of a cliff,” Webber, an endodonist by trade, explains as he begins his trek through the assorted gardens that he has designed.

Indeed, the vista from this porch is breathtakingly beautiful.

How do you become the best barbecuers in the state of Florida?

To hear John Markham tell it, you get the toughest piece of beef there is, throw it on a grill and wait.

Of course that’s what he and his cooking partner John Pendray have to say.

They’re the state’s best and they aren’t about to give up any of their award-winning secrets.

Markham and Pendray walked away last month with the top prize in the Florida Cattleman Association’s Barbecue Contest, held in Kissimmee.

I f you have never visited a nursing home, you might be surprised to know that not all the people living there are “seniors.”

Take Susan Phillips, for instance. Susan moved into Williston Rehab & Nursing Center six years ago, at the (some might say tender) age of 47.

She brought with her a love of plants, fish, dogs, cats and bears, and had to leave behind a home where her love of bears was displayed everywhere.

Coming to work for the women who oversee the Journeys program at Nature Coast Regional Hospital is almost like taking a child to a candy store.

Broad smiles, gentle laughter and apparent delight fills the room as they set about to prepare for the senior adults who will soon spend half a day with them.

Nancy Dessy, the director of Journeys, a counseling center for older people, says her staff gets as much benefit from the group sessions as they clients themselves.

“The folks who come here really blossom,” Dessy said.

City Clerk Barbara Henson, who will retire at the end of the month after 24 years of service to the city, was completely taken aback on Tuesday evening when she walked casually into the community center.

It was a sweltering 89 degrees Monday afternoon and along the US 27 corridor east of Williston there were few people stirring in their yards or farms.

Most residents, still at work or resting in their recliners, were planning on what the night’s dinner would be.

István (Steven) and Ferenc (Frank) Ivanics were more concerned about where they would lay their heads for the night, as they waged a battle against the seemingly endless batallion of mosquitos.