A Lewiston couple were facing a drafty house and high fuel bills.

A 2-year-old boy faced an uncertain recovery after being rescued from a near-drowning in Smalls Falls.

An Auburn teenager received a new kidney – and had a life-threatening reaction.

These are some of the people we reported on during the last year. We recently caught up with them, as well as subjects from some of our other stories, to find out how they are faring as the new year approaches.

Transplant successful, but struggles continue

Five months after her kidney transplant, Kelsi-Rae Moreshead of Auburn still has her battles.

An experimental treatment. Diabetes. The cold and flu season.

“A cold, any infection, can wipe out the transplanted organ in the blink of an eye,” said her mother, Karen Smith.

Kelsi-Rae has dealt with progressive kidney disease since she was 6. For years, she took dozens of pills and adhered to a strict, nearly liquid-less diet. She went through dialysis every day.

Doctors gave her only one hope: a kidney transplant.

After 18 months of waiting, she got a new kidney in July.

Everything looked good afterward. Kelsi-Rae went home, and her ordeal seemed to be over.

But within days, the disease was back. Left unchecked, it could ravage her new organ just as it had the old.

Since then, Kelsi-Rae has endured a weekly experimental treatment to clean her blood, much like dialysis. A few months ago, she developed severe diabetes, a side effect of two medications, her mother said.

Despite it all, Kelsi-Rae started ninth grade at Edward Little High School. It’s a treasured bit of normalcy.

“She loves high school,” her mother said.

– Lindsay Tice
Popular poplar survives, thrives in dirt

When Roland Chabot knocked down the old Empire Theater on Lewiston’s Main Street last May, at least 20 people asked if they could have the ragtag tree growing out the side of the building, 40 feet up in the air.

It was about 4 feet tall and, best guess, 7 struggling years old.

Chabot laid claim and planted the poplar in his yard as a souvenir of the job.

The tree weathered its first summer in the ground quite well, despite the change in diet and scenery.

“It went from poop to dirt,” quipped a bookkeeper at Roland’s Demolition. “It didn’t have any pigeon power.”

(It turned out the long-vacant Empire was pigeon nirvana. That annoying waste is probably what the tree had lived on.)

The leaves stayed right where they should be, the color they should be, until fall arrived. But the first winter in the ground is the real test for any transplanted tree, she said.

So the popular poplar watch continues. No word on whether displaced pigeons visit.

– Kathryn Skelton
Freed eagle now winging it in Durham

An eagle released in Turner in December spent a few days around Lake Auburn before following the Androscoggin River a few miles south.

Wildlife officials and biologists from FPL Energy released the adult female eagle – named E-70 – just outside Twitchell’s seaplane base on Dec. 9. Biologists are using a small satellite transmitter on her back to track her movements.

They suspect she and a mate maintained a nest on Gulf Island Dam, just north of Lewiston-Auburn. The nest was abandoned this summer, just about the time wildlife officials found the injured bird. They rehabilitated her at a bird haven in Freedom all summer.

They’d hoped she would reconnect with her mate once she was released, but that hasn’t happened, said Charlie Todd, a biologist with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

“It’s very possible that she’s been replaced in the nest, and she’s not welcome any more,” Todd said.

Most recently, the satellite tracked the eagle to the Durham-Lisbon area along the river. Todd said the state and the Gorham-based BioDiversity Institute hope to let the public track her and put the results on the Internet.

– Scott Taylor
Walcott: Society more accepting of gays

When voters passed the gay rights referendum Nov. 8, Rep. William Walcott, a Democrat from Lewiston, breathed a sigh of relief.

Last March, as House members were debating outlawing discrimination against homosexuals, Walcott announced he was gay. Until then he only told close family and friends.

When Maine voters finally said yes to gay protections, “it made me feel better about what I had done,” Walcott said. “I would have done it anyway. But it showed there are people out there who want to end this (discrimination) in Maine. It’s not just the Legislature.”

Walcott’s mother knew he was interested in politics when, 11 years ago, he told her he was gay. “She told me (then), ‘Now you’ll never be elected,'” Walcott said. He proved that wrong, and doesn’t believe his sexual orientation will be an issue in his re-election bid next year despite his public announcement last March.

Since the announcement, not much has changed for Walcott. His constituents still call for help dealing with health care issues and the Department of Health and Human Services.

He’s changed a little. He’s more relaxed.

Walcott used to keep his sexual orientation a secret. When others talked about their personal lives, Walcott stayed quiet. Now he’s not worried about anyone finding out.

“I feel a little bit better about myself, my relationships with other legislators,” he said.

– Bonnie Washuk

Pascagoula slowly on the rebound

The coastal shipbuilding town on the Mississippi Sound is still digging out from the effects of Hurricane Katrina.

Home to Ingall’s shipyard – Bath Iron Work’s long-standing rival – Pascagoula doesn’t expect to recover completely for another couple of years, said Louis Bond, an officer with the local electricians union. Portions of the shipyard are still being powered by generators, as crews work to restore electricity.

“They hope to get the power grids back up over our two-week break,” said Bond, referring to the yard’s holiday shutdown. Between 80 and 90 percent of the shipyard’s workers are back to work.

Many parts of Pascagoula were under 6 feet of water or more during the late-August hurricane, including Beach Boulevard, a mile-long strip of mansions and historic homes that border the sound.

The hurricane demolished the Beach Boulevard homes of Sen. Trent Lott and anti-tobacco industry lawyer Dickie Scruggs. But the 19th-century summer home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is still standing.

“The Longfellow House made it,” said Bond, noting that new condos built nearby were leveled. “I was tickled to death to see that.”

– Carol Coultas

Tot who plunged doing well

Zachary Larkin, the Connecticut 2-year-old who nearly drowned after going over two waterfalls this summer in northern Franklin County is excellent, his mother Allison Messersmith said Dec. 13.

“He has no repercussions of what happened,” she said. “He has no lifelong effects of what happened.”

Zachary and his former foster mother were dangling their feet in the water in Smalls Falls while on vacation when he let go of her hand. Zachary went over the waterfalls. His former foster father jumped in after him.

He found Zachary below the falls; he had turned purple and was not breathing. Counselors and others came to his rescue to revive him and bring him to safety.

Zachary’s condition was critical initially, but rapidly improved and he went home from the hospital a few days later.

“He still loves the water,” Messersmith said. “He was right back in the day after he came home from the hospital.”

The former foster mother, Julie James, said in mid-December that she was probably more traumatized than Zachary. Every time she sees a waterfall, she gets nervous.

Zachary returned to his biological mother’s custody Aug. 29, but the families remain in contact,” Messersmith said. “There are no hard feelings.”

– Donna M. Perry

Refugees return to New Orleans

The family who accepted an offer to live in a stranger’s home in Oxford County after floods ruined their New Orleans house has returned to Louisiana.

Bill Ullman said Robert D’Aquin, 35, his wife, Geralyn, 40, and their 13-year-old daughter Lindsay left Maine Oct. 28 after staying in his guest cottage just under two months.

Shortly after Hurricane Katrina hit, Ullman, 70, invited the family – who responded to a posting he put on the Internet – to stay with him at his Mason Township home for as long as necessary.

But he said that the D’Aquins were not forthcoming about their problems.

“It turned out neither of them was able to accept work,” Ullman said. “And the result was after four or five weeks, in spite of financial assistance given to them by me and several of my friends and many people in the Bethel community … they were out of funds.”

The D’Aquins have moved to a New Orleans suburb, and did not leave contact information, Ullman said.

“I went into this hoping that direct person-to-person help might be more effective than the bureaucratic assistance offered by government agencies,” Ullman said. “I think what I learned is that person-to-person help can be a lot more complicated than one expects.”

– Rebecca Goldfine

State program warms hearts, home of Lewiston couple

Lewiston residents Marilyn and Ralph Taylor had an unexpected visitor in October when Gov. John Baldacci knocked on their door.

Inside their home, he changed from a suit and tie into a short-sleeved shirt. Then he picked up a caulking gun and went to work.

Maine’s governor was showcasing a state program aimed at driving down heating costs this winter for hundreds of low-income Mainers.

Marilyn Taylor said she can feel the difference already.

“The house is definitely warmer than it was last year. No question about it,” she said.

A local contractor had earlier insulated the attic, stapled felt weather-stripping around basement windows and sprayed foam into cracks between floorboards.

Her bedroom alone, which has no central heat, is 15 degrees warmer, she said. Ralph, who has emphysema and must breathe pure oxygen all day, must stay warm to stay healthy, she said.

Community Concepts, a regional nonprofit agency, spent about $3,000 weatherizing the Taylor’s house. The couple is expected to save about $3,720 in heating oil over the next 15 years.

She had the oil tank filled in October and hasn’t needed to refill it since.

“It’s not even down to half yet,” she said.

– Christopher Williams

Hanging up his boots

Nine months after his return, Sgt. 1st Class Normand Roy is still healing.

Roy, 42, of Lewiston, spent a year in Iraq with the Maine National Guard, leading a platoon from the 133rd Engineer Battalion.

Slowly, he’s adjusting to life back home. However, a non-combat injury continues to plague him. Unlike most of the guard members he served with, he remains on active duty while he tends to a torn ligament in his knee.

“I’m recovering slowly,” said Roy, who worked on Lewiston’s water and sewer crew before he shipped out for Iraq in January 2004. He hopes to return to the job early next year.

“I’m looking forward to getting back to work, having a schedule and complaining about my day, like everybody does,” Roy said.

The 500-member Maine battalion came home in early March. Most of the men and women in the unit have returned to their previous jobs while still serving in the guard.

When Roy returns to work, however, he’ll probably do so as a civilian. The injury likely will make him undeployable with the guard, therefore sending him out of military service for good, he said.

“I’ve done 26 years,” he said. “It’s about time to turn in the keys and hang up the boots.”

– Daniel Hartill

Finding new life in Maine

Terrence Chatmon is optimistic about his hometown of New Orleans. The Hebron Academy student was forced to flee his home in August with his mother to escape Hurricane Katrina. They stayed with his sister in Houston and Chatmon came to Hebron in September for school.

“A lot of my friends told me they are fixing everything back home and things are getting fixed really well,” Chatmon said. “So that comforts me.”

Many of his friends are returning to New Orleans, but his relatives who had lived there won’t return. “They are all in Houston and they will either stay there or go to other parts of the country,” he said.

Chatmon spoke with the Sun Journal on Dec. 16, one hour before leaving Hebron Academy with the basketball team to play in a weekend tournament in Connecticut. School went well in the fall, and he planned to fly from New York City after the tournament to Louisiana to spend Christmas in Baton Rouge, where his mother has found a new home.

Dec. 16 was also a day when a major storm was dumping several inches of snow across western Maine, a new experience for Chatmon. “A lot of white stuff falling from the sky … it’s kind of weird,” he said.

– Kerri Pepoy