A Sad Farewell to Gina Schrader

#169 / News Extra

Gina Marie Schrader — a beloved figure in our long-time circle of friends — died early this morning in a Charleston hospital following a heartbreaking series of events in the first week of the new year.

Honestly, we can’t even remember when we first met Gina. It seemed like her smiling facing, framed in that lovely auburn hair, was always on the edge of every ring of musicians we sat with.

Often she was taking pictures — we have scores of photos that she sent to us over the decades — and always she was requesting tunes and whispering sweet encouragements.

She and Joe Dobbs were inseparable, often traveling together, but just as often simply enjoying a quiet meal together before trouping together over to the Bowen House for the weekly weeknight Flood jam session.

One of the tenderest moment for us is this image of Joe playing for Gina in her hospital room in March 2015, following her orthoscopic surgery for the second of two brain aneurysms she suffered over a decade and a half. (This also is one of the last pictures we have of Joe, who passed away just six months after that day.)

Tragedy

The week of Christmas, the Bowens received the annual Christmas greeting from Gina and her beloved companion of 15 years, photographer/filmmaker Doug Chadwick. The note with the card was full of Doug and Gina’s usual words of joy, hope and good wishes for the coming new year. It was all warm and comfortingly familiar.

But a week later, calamity struck. Doug suffered a heart attack.

On New Year’s Eve he was in the intensive care unit of Charleston’s Thomas Memorial Hospital. Doug had come through the heart procedure fine — no stints needed, no blockages — but friends on the scene reported that he was seriously ill with pneumonia and a liver that was not functioning well.

Along with Doug’s sister — Deborah Clearman of New York City — Gina was with him. Her last post on Facebook was at 2:40 p.m. on New Year’s Day, saying, “Thanks for all well wishes. We’re still in the woods. Love, Gina.” Doug died hours later.

Gina and Deborah spent Jan. 2 making arrangements for Doug, then decided to end that sad day with a visit with old friends Bill and Becky Kimmons at their home in the hills overlooking Charleston.

However, on the way to the Kimmons house, Gina suffered a severe head injury in a fall over a steep bank off that road.

“It was late and dark,” Becky reported to friends in a distraught message on Facebook. “She was coming in after a long day of making arrangements for Doug. She told Deborah to go before her, that she would be up in a minute or two.”

However, when Gina did not appear at the house, Deborah and the Kimmons became concerned and went out to look for her.

“After a maddening search in the dark,” Becky wrote, “Bill thought he saw a tiny movement over the hill in the brambles. His eyes are much better than mine. There she was, lying face down in the marshy weeds at the bottom of a six-foot drop. It looked bad and was actually worse than it looked. She had a massive brain bleed.”

Surgery was performed the next day at Charleston Area Medical Center, but Gina remained unresponsive and was kept on a respirator. A week later, doctors told Gina’s daughter Michelle that her mother’s injury was so severe that they could give little hope for recovery. In her living will, Gina had said to take no extraordinary measures to extend her life.

Gina died at 12:35 a.m. today. “Her daughter Michelle, and dear old friends, Judy Galloway and Pam Hutton, saw her through to the end,” Becky reported. “Thank you all for lifting all of us up through your prayers, love and kindness.”

A Happier Memory

This sadness has at least spawned a happier memory for us, as we suspect dear Gina would have wanted. We think back to a sultry summer night 25 years ago.

Gina had been whispering in the ears of Joe, Dave and Charlie, urging her Flood buddies to step up their game, jam more often, start picking at parties again. “C’mon, guys,” she’d say. “Whatcha waiting for?” And she was ready to do her part to make that happen.

As Charlie told his mom in an email one morning, “Joe has friends literally all over the world who play, and many of them come to West Virginia in the summertime for the festivals, and they gather for parties throughout the week.”

Joe asked Dave and Charlie to accompany him to one of those affairs — a party at Gina’s house in July 1998 — where some of his friends were coming in from Idaho, the Virgin Islands and Australia.

Gina lived in a wonderful little modern house set up in the oak forest near the Charleston airport -- trees on all sides. ”It was great,” Charlie wrote his mom. "We played all evening, and even renewed acquaintances with people we've not seen in 20 years.”

A highlight of the evening were the smiles and chuckles we got as Joe's friends heard the kind of tunes he had gotten his Flood family playing of late.

“In fact,” Charlie said in the email, “one of 'em said, 'Next thing you know, you guys'll be doing "Deep Purple."' We just winked at each other and launched into it... cracked 'em up.”

We can still remember Gina’s grin. That beautiful smile. Rest in peace, dear heart.