THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 2, 1995 TAG: 9505310156
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY REBECCA A. MYERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
Annie Corrine Eaton was put on a list for a donor heart in January 1994 because her own heart was operating only at 10 percent capacity.
Although she didn't know it, a bacteria from a childhood disease - either strep or meningitis - never left Eaton's body, settling into the muscles of her heart.
After nearly a year of medical treatment and ``a lot of prayer,'' Eaton's condition improved enough to get her off the list of potential heart recipients.
Feeling much better and grateful to be alive, the Cavalier Manor resident decided to write a play called ``The Unseen Guest.''
``I was inspired to write the play because I wanted all of my family members to be saved because they teach us that one day we'll see each other again,'' said Eaton, 46, a member of Fairwood-Agape Baptist Church.
``That's why I wrote this play because some of my family members are not saved. Some of my friends are not saved. And if people come to see this play, it might help them to want to do better, to change their lives around.''
The play will be presented at 6 p.m. Saturday at Bethany Baptist Church, 4810 Portsmouth Blvd. The Agape Players of Fairwood-Agape Church will perform the 12 parts in the production.
``If we can just make a difference and touch someone's life while we're living here, then they say our living will not be in vain,'' she said.
The play is about a rich but rude woman who turns her back on the people who need her the most, said Eaton.
``She turns them away by telling them she's expecting a special guest. And when her guest finally arrives, it's the Lord. He tells her he's been with her all day long, each time she turned away all of those people in need,'' said Eaton.
Eaton decided on the play's title, she said, ``because the Lord is a guest who is always with us, but who is unseen.''
As a child growing up in Suffolk, Eaton recalls being sick often, but she never knew why, she said.
``When I was a little girl, I'd fall out on the school bus and I'd fall out at school and I couldn't ever take gym,'' she said.
``My father took me to all these doctors, but they couldn't find out what it was. They thought it was epilepsy, but the epilepsy medicine would make me real sick, and I couldn't take it.''
When Eaton's health plummeted to its lowest point last year, she was as helpless as a newborn baby, she said. Her blood pressure dropped to 60 over 30.
``I couldn't even make myself a glass of water,'' said Eaton. ``I had just enough strength to go to the bathroom and back to the bed. My husband had to wake me up to take my medicine. It was bad.''
Before her health deteriorated, Eaton was a salesperson for Home Interiors. She was at a company seminar in Washington about two years ago when her illness was first diagnosed.
``On the second day of the seminar, I got sick and I almost died. There was so much fluid in my lungs that the doctors told me if I had slept for eight to 10 more minutes, I would have drowned in my own fluid,'' she said.
Eaton immediately sought the best medical treatment she could find, while her many friends, co-workers and family members began praying for her.
The two remedies seemed to have helped. Last November, Eaton's heart began functioning at 25 to 30 percent capacity, a marked improvement.
``Some days I have very good days and feel like I'm not sick,'' said Eaton, ``and some days I have real bad days and it feels like a football team is lying on my chest, and I can hardly breathe.''
Eaton worked on the play on and off for a few months while she was ill, but it took her only two days to complete it once she focused all of her energy on it, she said. This is the first play she's written for the public.
``I've written small ones for family members and for people at the church, but I never ventured out to do one for the entire neighborhood or anyone that wanted to come,'' she said. by CNB