Rick McCrabb: My 10 Most Intriguing People of 2023
Dec. 31—"Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers
Remember when you're talkin' to the man upstairs
And just because He may not answer, doesn't mean He don't care
'Cause some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered" — Garth Brooks, Unanswered Prayers
When I started in this crazy career 43 years ago, my dream was to work for Sports Illustrated. I wanted to write about all the major sporting events. Fly from coast to coast. Spend weeks in hotel rooms. Be the main man in the press box.
I'm glad Sports Illustrated never called. I can't imagine my professional life without the last 36 years covering high school, college and professional sports, then later breaking news, city council meetings, and writing daily features and weekly columns.
Throughout my career, I have been embraced by readers of this newspaper and website and those in the community. They open their hearts and allow me to open my notebook.
For that, I'm forever grateful for the unanswered prayers.
Here are my 10 most intriguing people of 2023, listed in alphabetical order:
Dale Brown: 'I was trying to beat myself and I did it'
Dale Brown, a heart transplant recipient, is best described as a Walking Warrior.
This year, Brown, 75, completed the 5K, or 3.1-mile, Hunger Walk, a fundraiser for the 613 agencies that partner with the Freestore Foodbank in Cincinnati.
He finished in one hour, one minute, 45 seconds.
Nearly 2,500 walkers registered and while Brown doesn't know where he placed, he said with a laugh: "There were a lot of people behind me, but a whole lot in front of me. I impressed myself."
His time and place seem irrelevant, really. Just finishing the walk for a man who eight years ago didn't know if he was going to die on the operating table is quite an accomplishment.
"I was trying to beat myself and I did it," said the 1965 Middletown High School graduate.
Todd Daniel: 'Never so glad to be back in the U.S.'
After six months serving as a missionary in Nigeria when a government official accused Todd Daniel of being a foreign spy, he remembers landing at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.
As soon as his feet hit the ground, he raced toward the drinking fountain.
"I almost sucked that thing dry," he said with a laugh.
Six months without fresh water will make a man thirsty and appreciate the simple things we take for granted.
"Never so glad to be back in the U.S.," he said.
Daniel recently retired as Madison Twp.'s road superintendent after 31 years.
Many years ago, Daniel said the school district was getting rid of the old playground equipment from the former junior school. So the road department took the equipment apart and re-assembled it at Madison Twp. Park. The equipment was used there until recently when it failed inspection due to safety concerns.
The equipment was recently dedicated with a ribbon-cutting. Now the park has new tennis courts and paved parking lots.
That's one of the priorities for employees as they count down the days until retirement. Leave their job better than when they were hired.
"You want things in good shape," he said. "I feel good about leaving. I like where the township is."
Billie Engel: 'A day in my life I'll never forget'
When I was invited to a Friends & Neighbors Club luncheon in Hamilton to listen to the keynote speaker, a 101-year-old woman, I figured it would be easy to spot Billie Engel in the room.
But no one looked to be that age.
I was shocked when Engel was handed the microphone, and for more than 35 minutes, sat on a chair in the front of the room, and without notes, weaved some of her tales that left the 75 people in the audience laughing and applauding at times.
She worked on B-25 bombers during World War II, became the first woman in the department to earn equal pay as men, married a man she dated for two weeks, later moved to Cincinnati, buried her first husband, married another man, buried him, visited 56 countries and islands and doesn't appear ready to rest yet.
"She's a free spirited woman for sure," said her only son, Don Kemen, 77, of Fairfield.
Last year, after hearing about B-25 rides being offered at Lunken Field, Kemen called his mother to see if she was interested. But due to inclement weather, the flights were cancelled. But Engel, who lives in a Fairfield nursing facility, got an even better offer.
She met a gentleman who invited her on an Honor Flight with other veterans to Washington, D.C.
While there, the veterans visited numerous memorials, including the WWII Memorials. As the group walked, Engel was handed a bouquet of flowers to place on a marker.
"One of the highlights of my life," she said. "I was so touched. A day in my life I'll never forget."
Terri Evick: 'It felt like I was back home'
The Evick family had the perfect Thanksgiving story to share.
Terri Evick, who spent more than 400 days in the hospital battling serious illnesses, celebrated Thanksgiving surrounded by her family and food for the first time since 2020.
"We will give special thanks with our special lady," said her husband of 42 years, Bob Evick. "It will be wonderful to celebrate with my wife here. I mean, really here, physically and spiritually."
On Oct. 8, 2021, Terri, a retired elementary school teacher who was subbing in the Lakota District, became violently sick to her stomach for 15 hours. She was transported to West Chester Hospital because her gall stones had invaded her pancreas. The family had no idea what the future would hold.
Since that day more than 25 months ago, the 63-year-old mother of three has been admitted and discharged from hospitals countless times, hospitalized for 403 days and survived numerous serious surgeries, including open heart.
She spent months in the Intensive Care Unit at University of Cincinnati Hospital, then was transported to UC Health Drake Center for physical rehabilitation.
She returned home in November and spoke to the congregation at Breiel Church, to the same people who have supported the family for two years. The members gave her two standing ovations, she said.
"It felt like I was back home," she said of her first time at church since May 2023.
Maryanne Ferrell: 'When God calls you to be a mom, you just do it'
Mother's Day columns are some of my favorite of the year, and Maryanne Ferrell certainly didn't disappoint.
Her oldest son, Luke, 24, has been married for one year to Brittany, and her daughter, Elley, turned 21 on Mother's Day.
Even though Elley is an adult, she needs constant care from her parents — Lamar Ferrell, pastor of Berachah Church in Middletown, and Maryanne — more than most people her age.
She was born with spina bifida, a birth defect in which an area of the spinal column doesn't form properly, leaving a section of the spinal cord and spinal nerves exposed, and hydrocephalus, a neurological disorder, two days before Mother's Day 2002.
Three months earlier, on Valentine's Day, Maryanne's ultrasound detected a possible birth defect. When her doctor diagnosed spina bifida, she remembered the years she volunteered for the March of Dimes in Kentucky where that disorder was "at the top of the list for birth defects."
The medical professionals "pitched" abortion as a possible option because of the severity of the birth defects. That never was an option for Lamar and Maryanne Ferrell.
Elley enrolled in programs at Abilities First when she was 3 months old, started putting words together in kindergarten and graduated from Middletown High School in 2021.
About that time during the interview, the overhead lights in the church lobby turned off. Elley guided her wheelchair to the middle of the room trying to activate the motion detectors. The lights came back on.
That brought a smile to Maryanne Ferrell's face.
"When God calls you to be a mom, you just do it," she said. "You want to fulfill that role to the best of your ability He's given you. It's just a great, great opportunity and I'm humbled."
Kathy Hicks: 'She's as tough as anybody I have ever seen'
Next month, Kathy Hicks, 74, of Middletown, hopes to complete what Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Fla. calls the "Dopey Challenge," a 5-K, 10-K, half marathon and full marathon in four consecutive days.
That's 48.6 miles in 96 hours.
That will give Hicks 75 marathons and it will be time to hang up her ultra-light running shoes that spill outside her closet and onto her bedroom floor under three wooden plaques that display all her medals she earned by completing a 26.2-mile marathon in all 50 states.
It all started when Hicks, then a 27-year-old elementary school teacher in Franklin, said she felt "a little soft." She joined the local Y, played racquetball, then was introduced to running.
Marathon runners have the best stories. A lot can happen to a person, physically and mentally, over a grueling 26.2-mile course that typically includes steep inclines.
As Hicks was preparing to run in a marathon in Arkansas, she got a sinus infection. The medicine she took made her dehydrated. But she wasn't about to let that keep her from running.
At about the eight-mile mark, Hicks became so dehydrated, she called her husband, Glenn, who was checking out of the hotel. She told him she needed transported to the hospital where she received an IV and two potassium pills.
"She's as tough as anybody I have ever seen," Glenn said of his wife of 24 years.
She returned to the course and finished the race, albeit when other runners were eating dinner. From start to finish, it took Hicks 11 hours, 28 minutes. Since she was the last runner to cross the finish line, she received a special medal shaped as a caboose engraved "The Best is Last."
James 'Pete' Snow: 'He didn't play when it came to his kids'
James "Pete" Snow certainly deserved the title "Mr. Middie."
No one was more connected, more passionate about the Middies than Snow, who died this year at Majestic Nursing Home, where he had been a resident for eight years. He was 83.
For the last 23 years, Snow depended on a wheelchair after he was paralyzed in an automobile crash on Sept. 9, 2000. Fittingly, Snow was injured while driving to the Dayton Mall to buy a magazine about the Cleveland Browns, his favorite NFL team.
Snow, a 1957 Middletown graduate, played football, ran track and wrestled in high school.
One of Snow's daughters, Erin Snow-Harris, 61, described her father as stern in a loving way. He protected his family.
"He didn't play when it came to his kids," she said. "There was 'Community Pete' and 'Daddy Pete.' He was the most loving father a girl could have."
Nick Ververis: 'It looks beautiful'
For someone not raised in a Greek Orthodox Church, spending time with Nick Ververis was an enjoyable and educational experience.
The love of art, an affection born when he was a young boy in Greece, Ververis brought that with him when he landed in Middletown that was opening Sts. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church on Grand Avenue.
From 1959 to 1981, Ververis painted eight icons, two large angels and a portrait of Virgin Mary above and behind the altar. Before his arrival, the church's interior was nothing more than white paint, a blank canvas.
Now, the entire interior of the church is an art exhibit worthy of being featured in a Greek Orthodox church architecture book.
"It looks beautiful," Ververis, 86, said while standing in the church's narthex with an unobstructed view of the altar and all the artwork.
Near the altar is what the Greek Orthodox Church calls "royal doors." On the door's left is an icon of Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus with halos over their heads. On the right is an icon of Christ. Next to Christ, is John the Baptist wearing oversized angel wings.
Chester Yeager: 'I have been blessed and lucky in life'
Chester and Stephanie Yeager believe in a Catholic education by sending their two two children Shane, 15, a sophomore, and Emma, 14, a freshman, to Fenwick High School.
They invested funds to back up their faith.
Earlier this year, the Madison Twp. family donated $2 million — the largest gift in the 72-year history of Fenwick High School — to install synthetic turf and make major upgrades to the field.
Yeager, 50, a farmer, said he was raised in southwestern Colorado and his family's property was connected to an Indian reservation.
As a young boy, he watched as his mother, Carol, a registered nurse, cared for the medical and hygiene needs of the Indian children. Then he saw his father, Barney, who owned a saw mill, assist those same Indian families and help local ranchers build barns.
"They always gave; they did things for people," Yeager said of his parents. "You help others. You leave this world better than when you found it. That should be a goal in life."
Yeager almost seemed reluctant to take praise for his $2 million donation.
"There was a need and we filled it," he said while sitting in the school's chapel. "I have been blessed and lucky in life. I want to help. If we all do our part, the world is a better place."
Sheree Young: 'I try to do everything in my power to help in any way'
Thirty-five years ago, Mark and Sheree Young's son, Mark Edward Young Jr., came into the world stillborn.
Ten years after that tragedy, Sheree Young founded Help Endure A Loss (HEAL), a Premier Health program that offers comfort, reassurance, and practical help to those who have suffered the loss of a child.
HEAL team members help families deal with the many issues that accompany a miscarriage, stillbirth, or neonatal or childhood death, she said.
During the annual HEAL Memory Tree Lighting ceremony, Young was honored with a recognition plaque for her 25 years of service by Dr. Greg Siewny, a retired OBGYN.
Early next year, Young, 69, will receive the 2024 Certified in Perinatal Loss Care of the Year Award presented by the Hospice and Palliative Credentialing Center. It is the organization's most prestigious honor.
Young, like so many who quietly perform invaluable services behind-the-scenes, isn't consumed with winning awards or recognition.
For her, it's all about the people, those going through "one of life's greatest tragedies," the loss of a child, she said.
"I try to do everything in my power to help in any way," said Young, a former neonatal nurse. "That's a huge order for me. Things can't be just OK for the families. It has to be 100 percent for them. It has to be everything."
Young and her second husband, Jeff Jarrett, have a blended family that includes three daughters, Cara Wagner, Alenna Buurma and Kaley Zech and nine grandchildren, Noah, Ava, Emma, Lucas, Sydney, Claire, Amelia, Malin and Wolfgang.
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