Helen Ann Spessard

Helen Ann Spessard (nee Myerly) did not plan to break both ankles before changing her address to Westminster Canterbury, but it happened.  When June 9th arrived the ankles were still healing, so her children happily took on her moving tasks. Helen Ann has three—Andrea Spessard lives in Atlanta, Georgia, Kurt Spessard, in Richmond; and Philip Spessard, wife Lisa, and their two children, Sydney and Caroline, reside in Marietta, Georgia.

Born in Maryland, Helen Ann graduated from Hagerstown High School and went on to earn a registered nurse degree from the local Washington County Hospital’s School of Nursing.   She reports that she has derived great satisfaction from her 40-year career working in different kinds of health services in a number of communities and settings—Hagerstown, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Richmond--including four hospitals, a blood bank, a doctor’s office, and a health-testing center.  From this variety of experiences, she found maternity work the most interesting; her longest stint was as supervisor and labor and delivery nurse in Henrico Doctor’s Hospital in Richmond.

As a young child, Helen Ann frequently accompanied her parents on trips across the Catoctin Mountains to Detour, Maryland, to visit her grandmother and recalls announcing on one of those trips that one day she would buy a mountain.  And, in 1991 she did, in Amherst County, and cherishes the 13 years she owned and lived on Little Gun Mountain. 

Helen Ann embraces a life that strives to balance one’s personal development with helping others in some way.  For personal enjoyment, she gardens, reads (spends most of her time in this pursuit), walks (2-3 times a day when the ankles are healthy), making jewelry, and sewing.  With membership in two organizations, Daughters of the King and Philanthropic Educational Organization (PEO) Sisterhood, she offers assistance to others.  Also, since 2006, Helen Ann has volunteered as a Pastoral Care Visitor at WC.  

Coming with Helen Ann will be her dog Abby.  Cody, the cat, very committed to his neighborhood in Forest, Virginia, remains there residing with one of Helen Ann’s former neighbors.