by Emily Darrell
Staff Writer

Easy-going. Soft-spoken. Caring. Kind.

These are words that friends and family use to describe Mary Anderson, a special education teacher at Powhatan High School.

So when they learned that Anderson, in her mid-50’s and the mother of four grown children, had been brutally assaulted, robbed, and abducted from her Academy Road home last month, they felt shocked and confused.
“She’s just one of the kindest, gentlest people, and to be attacked in this manner. . . words fail,” said Cathy Maxwell, who has been a friend of Anderson’s for more than 20 years, the two having first met in a writer’s group in Richmond.

Anderson’s 27-year-old daughter Stacey Myers said that her mother has experienced many health problems in her past, including three strokes, the first of which occurred in 2000 and left her without full use of the left side of her body for about a year. Since this stroke she has walked with a cane.

“Nobody deserves something like this,” Myers said of her mother’s attack, “but least of all somebody who’s had [all these health problems.] She couldn’t even defend herself.”

Myers said that her mother has been in intensive care since the January 25 attack; doctors expect she will stay there for at least another month. Her injuries include an arm broken in several places, a shattered nose, a shattered eye socket and a brain injury that, while not life-threatening, requires close-monitoring and will take weeks to heal.

Still, both Anderson’s friends and family describe her as a strong, independent person.

“She’s just a really a soft-spoken, easy-going type of person,” said Carolyn Greene, another longtime friend, who also met Anderson through a writing group. “I think sometimes that personality makes people underestimate her. They don’t know that she’s got a lot of steel inside.”

Maxwell agrees, saying that Anderson isn’t the type to complain. She said that Anderson rarely discussed her health problems, even with close friends.

“She wasn’t one to dwell on setbacks,” Maxwell said. “That wasn’t the type of person she was, or is.”

Myers said that although the family has set up a fund to help Anderson – www.maryandersonfund.org – she doesn’t want people “to think we’re asking for anything, because we’re not.”
Myers said that since the attack the family has had so many people contacting them, asking how they could help, that they wanted to make it as easy as possible for people who wanted to donate to be able to.

Powhatan High School Principal Kris Gwaltney sees the outpouring of support as a great example of the way the Powhatan community “really wraps its arms around one another” in the face of tragedy or crisis.

Gwaltney said that all 40 clubs at PHS will participate in a “Crazy Crate” sale on February 20. Each club will create a basket around a certain theme – reading, fishing, sports, etc. – and then auction it off. All proceeds will benefit the Mary Anderson Fund.
Because Anderson’s attacker set fire to her home, the majority of her possessions have been destroyed by smoke damage.

Myers said that her mother did have renter’s insurance, but that it only covers “probably less than a third” of what her mother owned. She also said her mother will likely not return to work until next school year, if then.

Still, Myers is grateful for two things. One, that police have apprehended a suspect – 29-year-old Amelia man James Lee Wolfe, Sr., who was arraigned on January 27 and will appear in Powhatan court again on March 16.

“I didn’t think they would ever catch somebody, “ Myers said, “let alone three hours after it happening.”

The thing she is most grateful for, however, is that her mother survived the ordeal.

“We’re just so happy she’s alive,” Myers said. “There are so many ways this could have gone differently.”

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Donations can be made to the Mary Anderson Support Fund in the following ways:

In person: Bank of Essex, 2320 Anderson Highway, Powhatan, VA 23139.

Online: Log on to www.maryandersonfund.org, where a Paypal account has been established.

By mail: Send checks or money orders to The Mary Anderson Support Fund, Box 133, 14241 Midlothian Turnpike, Midlothian, VA 23113