By Nancy Marlowe
Although Helene and Mike Heilig both are physical therapists, they welcomed the help of the All Souls community when their youngest son, Marshall, broke his femur (thigh bone) and was immobilized for 10 weeks in 2007 when he was three years old.
The active youngster was in an awkward chest-to-ankle plaster cast with a metal bar separating his legs. He lay rigid as a log. All Souls congregation pitched in to entertain Marshall, teach the older boys, help Helene with errands and make life easier for the older brothers, Ethan now 12, and Lucas now 10.
Marshall is now a fully recovered, soccer-playing 7 –year-old.
Family lore about that time includes Marshall’s firm refusal of the holy oil Brian Cole sought to apply and the time that Mike took Marshall in his cast to 9 a.m. church in a wagon and the congregation welcomed the little boy with a round of applause.
Mike and Helene were introduced by a mutual friend at a conference for licensed physical therapists held in Charlottesville, Va. Helene remembers Mike as the “strong silent type.” Mike was working as a PT at the University of Virginia teaching hospital. Helene had begun her physical therapy career working with stroke and spinal cord injury patients at Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center.
After an outdoorsy courtship of hiking and biking, the couple was married Sept. 27, 1997, and moved to Asheville the next day. Mike had scoped out the area on travel assignments in his profession. “I tend to pick the place first and then find a job there,” Mike said.
He went to work at Mission Hospital as a staff physical therapist and has, for the last 10 years, been manager of Mission’s Outpatient Rehabilitation and Fitness Center. Helene worked as a PT at CarePartners until they started their family. She is now a home-schooling, full-time mom and homemaker. The family lives in Fairview.
At Mission, Mike worked with former All Souls members Holly Daniels and Jeannette Bull Anderson, who invited the couple to All Souls. Jeannette and EJ remain active in Ethan’s life as his godparents.
Now deeply woven into the warp and woof of All Souls, Mike is an usher at 9 a.m. Helene has served on the vestry, teaches the first and second grade Sunday school class, and with Ethan participated on the search committee for our new youth director. Sons Ethan and Lucas are acolytes and Lucas and Marshall sing in the choir. The boys truly enjoy making palm crosses every year, from cutting fronds, to forming crosses to counting bags of 50 finished palm crosses.
The Heiligs enjoy the family-centered activities at All Souls. Parish meals and Kanuga Family weekend are two favorite activities. “It’s a great way for kids to get to know each other,” Helene said, “and parents, too.”