People with inspiring stories to tell come in all ages and types. That is easy to see during a review of stories that have appeared in The Democrat in a calendar year.

In 2006, two of the most inspirational stories were about 2-year-old boys, one severely disabled by disease and the other recovering from a serious bout with cancer.

Others with memorable and moving stories include a gardener who enjoys sharing her knowledge with others, a group of women dedicated to helping children, a mother and daughter who supported each other during their separate fights against cancer, a mentally challenged teen who struggled and succeeded at his first job, a retired teacher who continued to share her talents by teaching older adults to use computers, a nurse who overcame cancer as a child and went on to become a pediatric oncology nurse and the mother of triplets who was undaunted by the challenge of the three newborns.

Nicholas Stogner

Little Nicholas Stogner was nearing age 2 when his parents agreed to an interview in February. The tiny child, diagnosed with cerebral palsy, was sight impaired and unable to control his body in ways most 2-year-olds would be expected to do. The rounds of therapy were rigorous, but he was a fighter, following the therapist’s instructions, struggling to hold up his head and keep his fingers unclenched week after week.

At age 20 months, he was about 3 to 4 months in age developmentally, said Cheryl Sanford Givens, physical therapist. Every day was and is a challenge to his tiny body.

“Everything he gains is a big deal for him,” Givens said. His parents, Eric and Jayna Stogner, are fighters, too.

“They are working hard. And we have been blessed by so many people,” said Elizabeth Calhoun, Jayna’s mother, providing a little update on the child’s progress earlier this week.

In May, when Nicholas has his third birthday, he will begin hyperbaric treatments at a medical center in another city. “We don’t ever give up hope,” Calhoun said.

Ernest A. “Tony” Fields IV

Charming and precocious, 2-year-old Tony was the light of his parents’ life and a favorite at the Grace United Methodist Church playschool he attended when the shocking diagnosis came.

Cancer took hold quickly, surprising and devastating family and friends. “You cannot be prepared,” father Tony Fields said.

Treatment caused the usually vivacious and talkative child become melancholy and subdued. But he fought; he bounced back.

He picked up his beloved drumsticks again and asked for the music he loved to accompany on his drum set.

Prognosis was good when Tony and his family agreed to an interview in March 2006. The leukemia continues to be in remission. The outpouring of love and support kept the family uplifted, the child’s mother, Kim Fields, said.

“It’s wonderful to live in a community that opens its arms like this. We’ve had cards, calls, money, healing Scriptures and anything that would uplift us.”

Karen Dardick

A city girl, Karen Dardick found inspiration in the open spaces of California, where she began to experiment with gardening and landscaping after her move from New York City to that plant-friendly locale on the West Coast.

Her love for gardening included a passion for roses, which broadened as she experimented with the wide variety of the popular shrub. She began to write about her pleasures in the garden and became widely known for her gardening expertise through articles published in journals and magazines.

A freelance writer and columnist who shares her expertise freely, she moved to Natchez with her husband in the fall of 2005. Within a few months, she had created a fine rose garden and had transformed the grounds of their new home into a beautiful garden.

Dardick writes a column about roses for The Democrat and frequently presents programs to gardening enthusiasts.

“A garden is always a work in progress. It’s an art form that’s never ending,” Dardick said.

Dorothy Chauvin and Nancy Laird

The mother and daughter learned to lean on each other during their separate bouts with cancer.

The twofold aggression against their family began when Laird, then only 30 and the mother of a 6-month-old baby, learned she had breast cancer in 1993.

Four years later, her mother, then 64, became a breast cancer patient.

Then the unkindest blow came in 1998, when her doctor told Laird her cancer had returned.

Their best defenses against the disease were positive attitudes and support from their family and friends.

“I always thought I was OK,” Laird said, sitting at her desk at her business, Sign Graphics.

That includes the time spent in Arlington, Texas, where she received a bone marrow transplant after treatment for the second cancer.

Her first diagnosis came at a time when treatments were more brutal than they are today. “I’d have to go to bed for about 12 days after the chemo treatment,” Laird said. “But I worked through it. That one year I had seven surgeries.”

Chauvin said her daughter remained upbeat. “Then I found a knot. I had always known that I was at high risk,” she said. “I found it on a Friday and had surgery the next Monday.”

Experiencing cancer, the treatment and the survival does change lives, the mother and daughter agreed.

“It has changed my everyday life,” Laird said. “I try to get as much done in a day as possible. I don’t waste a second.”

100 Black Women

The city-owned Angelety House on St. Catherine Street has new energy and purpose since the Southwest Mississippi Chapter of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women began their tenure there in the spring 2006.

“The Angelety House will be used primarily as a cultural center to showcase the talent of local and visiting artists in areas of art, music and performance,” said Leola Harris, president of the chapter.

“Other activities, such a workshops and seminars, will be held as needed, and these will be on family literacy, financial management and health concerns,” she said.

The group has a reputation for helping young people, and that will continue in their newfound ventures at the new headquarters.

Some of the proposed activities will be art classes, music classes, a literacy café and concerts.

Harris hopes to get the entire community involved with exhibits, book signings and play activities for children. “But we know it will take funds for us to do that.”

Harris said children from the St. Catherine Street neighborhood certainly will have opportunities to take advantage of programs at the house. “But the programs will be open to the entire Miss-Lou area,” she said. That includes numerous workshops and tutorial and mentoring programs for school children.

Willie Mae Bacon

Volunteer instructor Willie Mae Bacon, a retired teacher, uses her education experience to help older students learn the newer ways to communicate on computers.

Bacon works with small groups at the Natchez Senior Citizens Center, pointing out the progress senior students make in only one day’s class. “You’re never too old to learn something new,” Bacon said.

Most of her students had never sat in front of a computer before classes with Bacon. She admires how much they want to learn.

Some students return after completing the class to encourage others who are just beginning.

Bacon has improvised wherever necessary. Determined that her students will learn, she coaches them by phone while they learn to operate their computers at home.

George Brown is a member of the new class. “I want to learn all I can about computers and go onto the Internet and find what I want. I want to be able to get maps. I like to travel,” he said.

Bacon said she admires and respects her students, “people over 60 who want to take on something new, especially technology.”

She talked the class through the first basic steps, telling them not to be afraid. “It doesn’t matter if you make a mistake. These are dumb machines. You are in control,” she said.

Anna Smith

A pediatric oncology nurse at M.D. Anderson’s Children’s Hospital, Ann Smith appeared before Congress in May to remind members of the importance of research in the her field of work.

Smith truly spoke from the heart, as she is a survivor of childhood cancer. At 13, she was diagnosed with bone cancer in her leg.

She beat the cancer and followed the call into nursing. A 2005 graduate of Alcorn State University School of Nursing, Smith took a job in Houston, Texas.

When she applied for the job in pediatric oncology, she thought, “No way I’ll get the job at M.D. Anderson, not this little girl from Natchez, Mississippi.” But she did.

“I knew this was what I wanted to do with my life,” she said. “I want to make a difference in the lives of these children.”

She thought she was tougher than she is, Smith said. “I thought, oh well, with kids, they don’t really know they’re dying. But I was so wrong. You would be amazed at how much they know, even at age 6.”

Anna is the daughter of Danny and Mary Katherine Smith of Natchez. Her mother, also a registered nurse, knows about that first encounter with the question, “Am I going to die?” She remembers having to answer the question.

“This is where my life began again,” Mary Katherine said. “This is the point I mark things by, everything in my life from 1994 through 1995, and this may be true for all cancer patients.”

When a mother hears that her child has cancer, the world stops, Mary Katherine said. “But when we walked into the door at St. Jude, they just wrapped us in a blanket and carried us away. They did everything. They just took over.”

Sanita Gutter

Three tiny babies, Faith, Hope and Joy, lay quietly in their beds on the day they celebrated their three-week birthday, Oct. 30. It was a rare moment of calm to savor.

Mother Sanita Gutter smiled as she sighed, “I haven’t been to sleep in I don’t know when.”

Grandmother Chris Malone spoke up, “But what a blessing they are. I tell my daughter, ‘now don’t forget you named them Faith, Hope and Joy when they start cutting up.’”

Think about it, the mother and grandmother said. Three babies — “and they are on exactly the same schedule,” Malone said. “They want to eat at exactly the same time, just like clockwork.”

Bottles lined the counters in the kitchen. Evidence of a new baby in the house appeared everywhere — times three.

“We’ve been up day and night and night and day, and there has been some praying going on,” Malone said.

The triplets’ dad, Mitchell Gutter, was at work. “He is so excited,” Sanita Gutter said.

This family has an edge on some others that have been surprised by triplets. The mother worked as a social worker for the preschool Head Start program.

Dr. Tom Carey Jr., the obstetrician who cared for the mother-to-be and who delivered the triplets along with his associate Dr. Donielle Daigle at Natchez Regional Medical Center, said he delivered triplets as a resident in training but not in the 13 years he has been practicing in Natchez.

“It’s a pretty rare thing, about one in 8,000 births,” Carey said. These triplets are all the more special because they were natural triplets, not the result of a fertility program.

Carey said Gutter is to be commended for taking care of herself, resting during the final weeks as recommended and overcoming some other issues that could have presented problems for her during pregnancy.

“She had wonderful support from her mother, who worked in labor and delivery for years,” he said.

Carl Washington

At 21, Carl Washington had to move on from the special education class at Natchez High School. He hoped to find a job. It was his life’s dream.

Thanks to a family friend, Ken Naff, and to help from the Mississippi Department of Rehabilitation Services, Washington found a job at Naff’s Audio Video.

His inspiration has been contagious. He spent his time on odd jobs assigned to him — dusting, vacuuming, emptying trash — always with a smile on his face.

“That job has really made a difference in his life and a difference at home,” said Alton Ceasor, Washington’s stepfather.

The jobs Washington does are things the storeowner found difficult to find time to do. But Washington’s work provides more than tasks completed; his biggest contribution is inspiration to those around him.

“He likes people. He knows a lot of people,” Naff said. “Seventy-five percent of the people that come in that door he knows.”