ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 15, 1996 TAG: 9601150078
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER
NOTE: below
FRIENDS, NEIGHBORS and strangers alike came to the rescue last week when snow made life difficult.
At the crest of Catawba Mountain is a yellow frame house that people remember.
It sits right beside the Appalachian Trail. The bay window in the living room frames Fort Lewis Mountain - perfect for watching a fierce snowstorm embrace a region.
On Jan. 6, as the snow piled on, something special began happening to the house's resident, Cara Kastritsis.
The people she likes to call her ``guardian angels'' began to arrive.
She never asked for them, but they came all the same.
Kastritsis, a science-fiction writer and researcher for Yale University, had trekked out that wintry Saturday afternoon to cut wood for her stove. She had her bow saw in hand and a wheelbarrow parked at her side when a stranger stopped and asked if she wanted some wood.
Kastritsis, who had spent 17 years in northern Los Angeles, didn't quite believe her ears.
``I expect them to steal my wheelbarrow, not give me wood,'' she said.
But sure as snow is white, Rick Smith came back with a truckload of wood, not wanting anything for his trouble. Kastritsis gave him $30.
Since the snowstorm began, Kastritsis has been the lucky recipient of many neighborly gifts. An acquaintance stopped by her house one day and asked if she needed a ride to the store.
When Kastritsis discovered she had burned out her car's alternator, a friend of a friend got a new one for her and installed it on his way home from work. And Smith later returned with a backhoe to shovel her driveway.
``People come by and check and look because I'm so isolated,'' she said. ``I guess they feel protective.''
By most accounts, the January snows warmed the hearts of many. There were those who shoveled an elderly neighbor's driveway or got extra groceries for those who couldn't get out.
There was a report of strangers stopping to get a stranded motorist out of a snow mound on Virginia 419.
In Southeast Roanoke, a woman stopped her car to help a homeless man cross the street, then got help for a man frozen in the snow a short distance away - all while cars honked for her to keep driving.
There was the Botetourt County family who took a snowy hike to pick up their daughter's stranded college roommate near the interstate; a man who stopped traffic on Wildwood Road in Salem so grocery shoppers could leave the parking lot; a shopper who offered to bag groceries for an overwhelmed cashier.
``Everyone just pulled together,'' said Lowell Eakin, manager at ATS Transmissions, who put in Kastritsis' new alternator and would accept only dinner in return. ``People who were out were doing good things for folks.''
At the height of the storm, Alice Ramsden had almost given up on anyone being neighborly.
Eighteen inches had fallen by the time the 69-year-old nurse got home from the night shift Jan. 7. The steps to her apartment in Northeast Roanoke were so covered with snow she had to crawl up them.
When she reached her door, she realized she had lost her keys. For more than an hour, Ramsden waited outside in the cold and the snow. She knocked on a dozen doors. No one answered - until she got to Jerry Haskins.
``I was standing there crying,'' she recounted.
Haskins invited her in and gave her a warm place to stay until the apartment complex could get an extra key.
``If it hadn't been for [Haskins], I don't know what I would have done,'' Ramsden said.
Katherine DeVine can relate to that fear. On Wednesday, she believed she was on the verge of a disaster.
Her 9-year-old son, Ivan Zuidhoek, went sledding and took his Christmas present with him - a 6-week-old puppy named ``Bear.'' The Labrador-chow mix playfully followed until he wandered off to find more excitement.
DeVine feared the puppy had fallen into the nearby Roanoke River. The whole family was near tears, she said.
Finally, DeVine stopped a police officer patrolling the neighborhood and told him about the precocious pup. Cruising the neighborhood, the officer found ``Bear" playing with tobogganers several blocks away.
``I don't know the officer's name,'' she said. ``I was so relieved - we couldn't stay home knowing the puppy was out there. It was really nice of him, with all the emergencies.''
No matter what happened with the weather, Katherine Horn had a plan. She was getting married Jan. 7, and no natural disaster was going to stop those wedding bells.
Plan A was to get married at The Wedding Chapel on Peters Creek Road with about 50 guests.
But when the snow came and the minister canceled, Horn immediately went to Plan B: a small service in her living room. When the best man couldn't get his four-wheel-drive vehicle into her South Roanoke County neighborhood, Horn scrapped Plan B and got creative.
``We put our jeans on,'' she said. ``My sister was the matron of honor by default. My father was the best man by default.''
The couple and their wedding party trudged through the snowy streets to their neighbors' house - Catherine and Clay Peters. Lucky for them that Clay is an ordained minister.
``It was very romantic,'' Horn said.
Katherine and Fred Horn returned Sunday from their honeymoon - a night at the Hotel Roanoke.
``When the valet opened the door, he asked us if it was a long trip,'' Horn said. ``I told him it took five minutes and a week to get here.''
LENGTH: Long : 111 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. WAYNE DEEL/Staff. Cara Kastritsis stands between herby CNBnew friend, Lowell Eakin, who replaced her car's alternator, and
precious firewood brought to her Catawba Mountain home by neighbor
Rick Smith. color. 2. ERIC BRADY/Staff. Thanks to a Roanoke police
officer whose name they don't know, Katherine DeVine and her
children, Isha Zuidhoek, 4, and Ivan Zuidhoek, 9, have their lost
puppy, ``Bear,'' back.