Mabel Plants was the nicest person I ever met.  She the secretary in Social Services at Holzer Medical Center when I worked there.  She, along with Kay Allbright and Don (whose last name I forget) comprised the department.  Even though Mabel wasn’t a social worker, she helped people as much or even more than one.  She was relentless in finding help for patients.  She begged, twisted arms, whatever was necessary.

Mabel had a great sense of humor, which fit right in with the rest of us.  Sometimes at the end of a long day, I, along with Linda Carey and Dale, would join Mabel, Kay, and Don in their office and swap stories.  Funny stories.  Make-your-sides-hurt funny stories.  They were a great bunch of people.

Mabel was married to Dorsal.  Dorsal and Mabel.  They were quite a pair.  Dorsal could tell the funniest stories.  He was loud and expressive.  And he was just as nice as Mabel.  They lived in Point Pleasant, West Virginia–just across the Ohio River from Gallipolis, Ohio.  Being West Virginians, they were hardcore WVU fans.

Towards the end of my time working there, Mabel was diagnosed with cancer.  If I recall correctly, it was cancer of her spine.  The doctors and nurses there worked so hard to battle it for Mabel.  Eventually, she was unable to work and stayed at home.  I remember after Dale and I had left for other jobs, we went to visit Mabel in the Fall.  She was still in good spirits and as funny as ever.

About a year later, Dale was working at Vanderbilt and I was working at Ohio University.  (I commuted to Nashville every other week for three years.)  In October I bought my Saturn.  Since it wasn’t my weeked to drive to Nashville, I decided to enjoy my new car by driving to see Mabel.

Mabel loved pink.  She even had Dorsal paint the outside of their house pink.  I drove from Athens to Point Pleasant, about an hour or so away.  When I turned onto Mabel’s street, I noticed the house wasn’t pink anymore.  This really weird feeling came over me.  I parked and went to the door.  Dorsal answered my knock.  I said I’d just bought a new car and I thought I’d come and see how Mabel was doing.  There was a long pause.  Then Dorsal said Mabel had passed away the previous January.

Years later I learned that Dorsal had passed away in 2005.  But their legacy lives on.  They raised two wonderful kids who anyone would be proud of.  And their spirit lived on with Dale and I.