Categotry Archives: Misc.

Barbara K. Brent always believed in fighting for peace and equality. While attending Valparaiso University, the Oak Park, Ill., native participated in demonstrations supporting the Equal Rights Amendment. Thirty years ago, she marched in Washington, D.C. to protest the Vietnam War. More recently, she braved oppressive temperatures, and chemotherapy-induced exhaustion, to oppose the War in Iraq.
Brent was working with battered women in the early 1980s when she first became aware of the plight of the homeless. As the first executive director of the DuPage Public Action to Deliver Shelter program in Wheaton, Ill., Brent convinced local religious leaders to open their houses of worship and provide food and shelter to the homeless population. Known for her compassion and determination, she was nicknamed “Our Fearless Leader” by her co-workers.
Brent earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and sociology from Elmhurst College, and a master’s degree in human service administration from National-Louis University. She later worked as a probation officer, volunteered with the DuPage Women Against Rape organization and taught a class at the College of DuPage. In 1996, she was named the Wheaton Kiwanis Club’s Citizen of the Year.
Brent died on June 20 of complications from non-Hodgkins lymphoma. She was 52.

Bikini Island is a lush, tropical landmass in the Pacific that’s part of an atoll of the same name. In 1946, the island’s residents were evacuated from their homes at the behest of their chief so the United States government could test atomic and hydrogen bombs there. These tests lasted until 1958, and a decade later, the islanders were told they could return home.
Nathan Note was skeptical of the government’s claims that the area was safe for human habitation. So he became an activist dedicated to warning Bikini Islanders about the dangers of radiation. Most of the Bikinians listened to Note’s arguments and refused to return home. About 100 natives, however, believed that the U.S. government wouldn’t put them in harm’s way and returned to Bikini Island.
In 1978, those resettled residents were evacuated when new scientific data showed dangerous levels of residual radioactivity. Further tests revealed that they had ingested large amounts of radioactive cesium from crops and well water. High levels of radioactive cesium exposure can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, bleeding, coma and even death.
Note was part of the first Bikinian delegation to go to Washington D.C. and demand help for his people. After years of neglect, the U.S. government granted several multi-million dollar nuclear test compensation trust funds to the Bikini citizenry. To this day, Bikinians remain in exile.
Note died on June 19 of natural causes. He was approximately 85.

Charlene Singh, who is believed to be the only U.S. resident with the human form of mad cow disease, died in her sleep on June 20. She was 25.

Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) is the human strain of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, a brain-wasting disease found in cows. People who eat meat from infected cows may develop vCJD. Younger people are more likely to develop the disease, which has an incubation period of 10 to 15 years.

There is no cure.

Singh likely contracted vCJD in Britain, where she was born and raised. She and her family moved to the United States in 1992.

Singh was once a vibrant young woman. The Ft. Lauderdale resident earned a business degree from the University of Miami in May 2001. Six months later, she began to experience memory loss and changes in her behavior. American doctors prescribed antidepressants, but her health continued to decline. Soon she had difficulty walking and using fine motor skills.

Singh’s family sent her to Britain for a second opinion, and the doctors there diagnosed her as a probable vCJD case. Medical workers attempted several experimental treatments, but her health eventually deteriorated to the point where she couldn’t speak, eat or move.

An autopsy has been scheduled to obtain a definitive diagnosis of her brain-wasting illness.

Kala Chakov Beitchman found happiness in helping others. For more than a decade, she crocheted hundreds of blankets then donated them to members of the community.
The daughter of Russian immigrants, Beitchman first learned to crochet as a child. She maintained her weaving skills throughout her life, often working on three blankets at a time.
When Beitchman moved from her native Philadelphia to Miami Beach in the mid-1980s, she joined the Merry Mummers, a musical group that performs in area nursing homes. Beitchman was playing the tambourine when she spotted an elderly woman sitting in a wheelchair, huddling inside a tablecloth to keep warm.
That day, Beitchman decided to donate her elegantly crocheted blankets to people who needed them. Patients at the VA Hospital, residents of local rest homes and visitors to Camillus House, a shelter for the homeless and indigent, all benefited from her charity.
Beitchman died on May 24 of heart failure. She was 92.

For three decades, Salvatore Verdirome’s 3-acre backyard provided solace and entertainment to thousands of visitors.
Known as the Sanctuary of Love, the terraced yard in Greeneville, Conn., was lavishly decorated with rows of sturdy white crosses and religious statues framed inside 47 upended, cast-iron bathtubs. Designed in 1971 by Verdirome, the shrine also included artistic renditions of the 10 Commandments, the Stations of the Cross and the Sea of Glass from the Book of Revelations.
Visitors to the shrine viewed the displays of Jesus, the Virgin Mary and various saints by walking on paths decorated with mosaics and religious sayings. When the Foxwoods Resort Casino opened in nearby Mashantucket, Conn., gamblers made a point of stopping by the shrine to pray for luck — and returned when their prayers were denied. Although Verdirome never charged admission to the Sanctuary of Love, some guests donated money or old, claw-foot tubs. At the entrance to the shrine, he welcomed all visitors with a sign that read: “Your faith has brought you here.”
A deeply religious man, Verdirome used to collect day-old doughnuts and give them to the needy. He also gathered recyclable bottles and cans, then used the deposit money to buy food for local homeless shelters. For many years, he allowed strangers to stay on his property at no charge. In 2000, city leaders foreclosed on Verdirome’s home to recoup $100,000 in unpaid taxes and utility bills. The religious sanctuary was dismantled two years later, and all of the statues were auctioned off.
Verdirome died on May 15 of a stroke. He was 84.