Published: January 24, 2009 06:51 pm      

Tazewell women experience monumental day in person

TAZEWELL, Va. — Alicia Honaker and Jackie Crisp are still walking on a cloud and wearing smiles so bright that they almost shine through a telephone line. The two thirty-something mothers of three children each — both health care professionals — were among the crowd estimated at 1 to 2 million who witnessed the historic inauguration of President Barack Obama in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.

“Here we were, just two country girls from Tazewell, going to Washington to see the inauguration,” Honaker, 31, said. Honaker is the director of Cardio, ICU and the Emergency Department at Carilion Tazewell Community Hospital. “It was a great feeling It was like we were all part of one huge family.”

Honaker and Crisp, 30, a respiratory therapist also at Carilion TCH, received tickets to the inauguration through U.S. Rep. Frederick C. “Rick” Boucher, D-Va., and had already seen Obama when he visited Lebanon, Va. Obama visited Southwest Virginia and spoke at Lebanon on Sept. 9, 2008. The two women volunteered to work as ticket-takers at Lebanon High School during Obama’s campaign stop.

“At some point, one of his campaign volunteers came back and asked if anyone had a car available and a cell phone,” Honaker said. “I thought I was in a good place to see Obama, but I said I did and they sent me to Abingdon, Va., told me to park on the street and be a go-for if anyone needed anything.”

“I didn’t want to go with Alicia when they came and asked,” Crisp said. “We were right at the door and I thought it would be the best chance to get a look at (President) Obama.”

As it turned out, Honaker took the wise course. She was in Abingdon waiting for any instructions that might come her way when she saw Obama arrive. She met him and had her picture taken with him. Boucher didn’t forget the efforts of the young Tazewell volunteers, and rewarded them with tickets to the inauguration.

The two friends traveled to Woodbridge, Va., on Sunday, and took the Metro into the city Monday to find the gate they would be entering through as well as to pick up their tickets. The Metro trip from the Springfield Station to downtown that took 20 minutes on Monday took three hours on inauguration day. People were jammed everywhere and the gates had barricades where they hadn’t been the day before.

“All these people were heading in the direction of the gates, but there was no guidance,” Honaker said. “Still, the atmosphere ... it was good. There was no aggression, and we never felt like we were in danger. There was a lot of love, hope and unity for real. It wasn’t like a hippie thing. It was very exciting.”

“There was a real spirit of hope,” Crisp said. “When you bumped into someone and said: ‘I’m sorry,’ they would say: ‘Oh, that’s all right. Go right ahead.’ Any other place, if we would have been in a crowd like that, we would have felt some danger, but not there.”

“It made me feel how great the American people really are,” Honaker said. “I had never experienced the feeling of love, happiness and joy as I did there. We saw so many elderly black people there. Even though it was cold, they didn’t seem to mind. It was good for us just to see the joy on their faces.”

Honaker and Crisp enjoyed great support from their husbands, children and families. “Everyone in our family was excited about it,” Crisp said. “We couldn’t have gone there without their support.”

“On Tuesday, there was a time when we couldn’t get cell service to get a call out, and that caused some anxious moments, but we were never in any danger,” Honaker said.

Both women hope to keep the spirit of hope alive by sharing their story with people in their home area. Honaker’s mother made the request to Boucher. Monday marked Honaker’s second trip to the nation’s capital, but it was Crisp’s first visit to Washington.

— Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com