THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 19, 1996 TAG: 9609190356
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LINDA MCNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: 91 lines
Last spring, Ervin Wilkins, at 86, went into his large back yard on Jackson Street and planted tomatoes, green peppers and cucumbers.
And one day, while he was tending his small garden near the huge pecan tree, Wilkins drew his last breath.
Now that autumn is dawning, Wilkins' plants have withered and turned brown. But his dreams are just beginning to blossom.
With help from U.S. Navy SEALs from Little Creek Amphibious Base in Norfolk, the local chapter of the Knights of Columbus and the Suffolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority, Wilkins' stately, 100-year-old home on the quiet, tree-lined street he loved soon will be a residential home for mentally retarded adults.
``Residential facilities for the mentally handicapped is our number-one need across America,'' said Vince Doheny, executive director of the Western Tidewater Community Services Board. ``Everything has proven that they do so much better in a home-like environment. And this is a wonderful old home.''
Wilkins knew all of that because his only child, Ann Bunch, has worked with the mentally retarded for years. Bunch even dreamed of one day starting a residential center on her own.
Her father, Bunch said, came to understand her work, and he shared her concern and enthusiasm.
``He never came right out and said this is what he wanted, but it was like silent communication between two people who were very close,'' Bunch said. ``He hadn't been dead for 24 hours before I knew what I would do with his house.''
The family home, built in 1890 and acquired by Bunch's grandparents in 1905, always offered a sheltering atmosphere. Bunch recalls that she and her parents went back there during World War II. She returned years later, when her husband was dying.
After that, her father, who had retired as manager of I.O. Hill Furniture Store and as a funeral director at I.O. Hill Funeral Home in Suffolk, told his daughter that he would remain in his home as long as possible.
Meanwhile, he ate dinner with her nightly, talked with her about her work, even drove her places she needed to go.
``He was so supportive of promoting the field of caring for people with disabilities,'' Bunch said.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, Bunch thinks, her father would have been happy to see the invasion of Navy SEALs armed with ladders, paint scrapers and buckets of spackling compound.
Few of the men from SEAL Team Four had construction experience, but they were willing to devote two of their days off to a good cause. Doheny, retired from the Navy, made the arrangements.
He brought the Knights of Columbus in to serve lunch, and he asked the SRHA to paint the house once the walls had been repaired and the woodwork had been scraped.
``We actually do a lot of volunteer work like this,'' said Chief William Belfour, acting as construction supervisor over 12 other SEALs. ``We've got a little experience here - from painting to refurbishing. And, actually, this house is in excellent shape.
``They don't tell you before you join the Navy,'' he added, chuckling, ``but painting and scraping is one of our primary jobs.''
Two more teams of SEALs are scheduled to come in to continue the work over the next two weeks.
The house has seven large rooms, including a modern kitchen and a screened-in back porch looking out onto the spacious yard. Doheny said that he hopes to open by Nov. 1 with four mentally handicapped adults living there.
``We are so excited about this,'' said Darlene Rawls, supervisor of mentally retarded residential services for Western Tidewater. ``It gives us such easy access to downtown. It's close to sheltered workshops. And there is such a warm feeling here.''
Bunch has agreed to lease the home to the Western Tidewater Community Services Board with the option to buy well below market value. Doheny hopes to get a grant to help with the purchase. Meanwhile, everything it needs to turn a beautiful old family home into a haven for four young adults with disabilities will be done by hard-working volunteers.
When Bunch visited the home on Wednesday to see the work that was going on, she was reassured that she'd made the right decision about her father's house.
There, taking a break on the front porch, sat four of her former students, young men she had known in a private school for the mentally retarded when she first started teaching in the 1970s. All four, who were there to help clean up, now work at a local sheltered workshop.
``They are living in a house; they are being productive; they are going to work,'' she said.
And she turned to Doheny and said, ``My daddy is looking down on us right now, and he is smiling. I'm so grateful that so much good is going to come of this.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by JOHN H. SEALLY II/The Virginian-Pilot
Navy SEALs from Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base in Norfolk are
helping refurbish a home on Suffolk's Jackson Street so it can be a
residential home for mentally retarded adults. The SEALs pictured
above are Mike Brunst, foreground, and Nick Reid; at left are Hill
Shepard, left, Dan Toth and Jeffery Louis. by CNB