April 20, 1957. Lena Dinterman, of Rocky Springs, made the front page of The News. She had dyed 1,800 Easter eggs, the most recent additions to the "well over" 30,000 eggs she'd colored during her previous 15 years as egg-dyer for the annual Kiwanis Club Baker Park Easter egg hunt. Two photographs accompanied the article: one of Dinterman and her daughter dying eggs "assembly line fashion"; the other of five of Dinterman's "daytime wards" as they "while(d) away their time with a litter of Easter bunnies." They were among 120 foster children Lena and her husband, Howard "Buddy" Dinterman, would care for during their lifetime.
It was 25 years before Lena made the front page again. The Oct. 14, 1982, issue of The Frederick Post told the story. It had nothing to do with Easter eggs. It was about aerosolized staphylococcal enterotoxin B.
The headline read: "Army admits '64 bacteria incident at Detrick: Lena Dinterman wants justice for her husband." The photo caption described Lena as "making her case" claiming the Army and Labor Department "have not responded properly to her husband's application for compensation after he was disabled by dangerous bacteria at Fort Detrick in 1964. Mrs. Dinterman uses documents and posters to explain the plight of her husband." Buddy is shown in the background, in a wheelchair. He had steadily deteriorated during the 18 years since the day of the Detrick "accident," when his wife waited outside Building 470 to pick him up after work. Lena explained how Buddy came around the fence as usual, but on that "very hot" August day was wearing a heavy overcoat. She said: "He didn't look right." When Buddy got into the car, Lena asked what was wrong. He replied: "My mouth tastes like lilacs smell."
Lena said it was the "last complete sentence Buddy spoke."
The chronicle of Lena's efforts to receive acknowledgment of, and compensation for, her husband's care; and, later, a van for transportation to and from medical appointments spanned years and involved prime movers from Sen. Charles Mathias to Sen. Barbara Mikulski to President Ronald Reagan. Local press coverage was present every step of the way.
The last Dinterman feature story appeared Sept. 10, 1988, in The Frederick Post, again, on the front page. The photo shows Lena at Buddy's bedside. He had been in a coma for two years, "still alive thanks to his wife's constant care ... day and night, turning him, sponging him, changing him, chopping his food in a blender and reading to him from the Bible."
Buddy died in 1992 at the age of 77. A few months ago, Lena passed away at age 92. Their story likely could be lost to us, along with its lessons in abiding love, perseverance, faith and fortitude. Luckily, there are archived pages of this newspaper, among others, rife with Fort Detrick-related "news" and information, all recorded in the moment.
That might be something for the Hood College graduates who are "working to flesh out Fort Detrick's history and bring the last accounting of the post's past up-to-date" to look into. They said accessibility and completeness are two goals of their project.
We trust them on that one and think that such an undertaking wouldn't be complete without Fort Detrick's "people" stories, too; stories like the one Buddy and Lena Dinterman lived for so many, many years of their remarkable lives.
|
