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Friday, May 16, 2003

By Gary Rotstein, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Three years ago, Melissa Maxeiner was living in her father's rural Moon home, gorging on Oreos and pizza, unable to travel on her own, largely isolated in a knickknack-crammed bedroom except for working a hotel kitchen job.

It was the life of a dependent and frustrated, mentally retarded young woman.

Today, the sweet-smiling 32-year-old is managing her own life in a self-decorated Castle Shannon apartment. She's switched jobs, shed 60 pounds, mastered mass transit, learned personal budgeting and dropped compulsions for shopping and junk food.

	Melissa Maxeiner, seen here with her cat, Angel, will be one of 10 mentally retarded individuals to be honored today with Self-Determination awards, a recognition program for clients striving toward independence. (Lake Fong, Post-Gazette)

Maxeiner's mental retardation is still there, but the assumptions of how it might limit her have diminished.

"I feel like I've come a long way," she said, softly.

Officials with the Allegheny County Office of Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities agree. They made her one of 10 mentally retarded individuals to be honored today with Self-Determination awards, a first-time recognition program for clients striving toward independence.

The plaques Maxeiner and the others will receive commemorate their roles in a societal shift toward allowing people with disabilities more control over their lives.

"People have [achieved independence] for ages, but what we're trying to do is set up a system that fosters and supports that," said Steve Evrard, manager of administrative services for the county's mental retardation program. "You're looking for a way so this person has choice and control over public-funded resources, and how she lives her life."

For someone with mild mental retardation like Maxeiner's, self-determination has meant help through the county in finding an apartment and managing a budget, but it's her handwritten check that pays the rent. She covers her share with income from a bagging job at Shop 'n Save.

It's also meant getting lessons on the bus and trolley system -- and a subsidized monthly pass to traverse it.

A job coach helped her find the supermarket work last year because her former airport hotel position became a commuting grind once she moved. The new job brought unfamiliar tasks and faces, similar to challenges she faced earlier in moving to Castle Shannon, where she didn't know anyone.

Maxeiner says that she'd been trying to move from home for several years before it occurred.

Her father, John Maxeiner, said he'd encouraged her, but her plans were delayed by family problems -- her mother's recurring illness and her parents' divorce.

That freedom arrived after three decades of sheltered living for a person labeled by experts at Cleveland Clinic around age 5 as someone who "would never lead a normal life," her father said.

"They said she would never be able to dress herself, feed herself, to feel a love for anything," he said.

The assessment proved to be inaccurate, as Maxeiner showed more capabilities than most classmates attending the former Western Hills School for children with special needs.

When living with her parents after finishing school, she wanted to emulate other lifestyles, but had no idea how.

"She would see my apartment and see me decorating and say, 'I want to do that. When I have my own place I'll invite you over and make you dinner,' " said her older sister, Jennifer Maxeiner, of Hopewell.

Her county-contracted case manager at Staunton Clinic began working in 2000 to arrange the personal training Maxeiner needed. She was matched with Mainstay Life Services, whose counselors taught her about budgeting, proper diet and other lifestyle goals.

The transition wasn't easy. Maxeiner had to overcome fear of doctors and dentists to obtain basic health care. Her weight, which once topped 300 pounds, made even getting out of a chair difficult. She bounced some checks, and had to be taught that rent and utility payments take precedent over trips out for pizza.

She also suffered from depression and avoided situations with new people, said Marilyn Brinkman, the Mainstay program manager who has mentored Maxeiner.

"She was terrified of anybody and anything, because she'd had people telling her what to do her whole life," Brinkman recalled. "We kept reminding her, 'If you want to remain in that apartment, you have to get out of bed and do what you need to do.' "

Two years later, it's a different story. Family members have trouble reaching her at home sometimes, because she's so active on walks, work, visits, window-shopping or other outings. Her refrigerator is stocked with Lean Cuisine meals and diet drinks, and she's learned basic cooking.

Also receiving awards this afternoon at Community College of Allegheny County are Harold Dovey of Upper St. Clair, Hallie Fisher of North Braddock, Ida Hart of Smock, Ed Lubomski of Bellevue, James Manley of Highland Park, Teri Owens of Brentwood, Thomas Preisendorfer of Braddock Hills, David Stitt of Morningside and Jerry Wilhelm of Banksville.