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Feet need pampering, too, and Judy Hickey's had their day on Wednesday.
Meet Judy Hickey, before.
Cybil Azevedo washes Judy Hickey's hair at Skin Appeal Day Spa in Stafford
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Meet Judy Hickey after her day of being buffed, polished, kneaded, cut, colored and made up at Skin Appeal Day Spa and Esthetics Center on Wednesday. |
Judy Hickey perched on the high stool and turned to grin for the cameras.
Shutters clicked double time, recording her glowing skin, brilliant eyes and artfully tumbled golden hair.
It had been quite a day.
Hickey, who lives in Stafford County's Aquia Bay Estates, was the beneficiary of Tina and Andrew Pilz's desire to provide a lift for someone who really needed one.
The couple own Skin Appeal Day Spa and Esthetics Center on Courthouse Road in Stafford. In March, they publicized their search for "a deserving person" to receive a free daylong makeover.
"We got about 70 nominations," Andrew Pilz said "It was really hard to pick."
He said the whole staff voted, since all the employees were donating time for Wednesday's makeover.
Hickey was nominated by her daughter, Christine Fewell of Dale City, following a patch of bad luck that stretched over the previous seven months.
Hickey's saga began in the middle of what was supposed to be a two-week vacation with her husband and other family members in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Fewell stopped by her parents' house to check on things and found water gushing out of one of the kitchen cabinets.
The water line to the refrigerator ice maker had ruptured, flooding the house for three or four days.
"The master bedroom is directly under the kitchen," Hickey said. "We lost pretty much everything in the bedroom."
Additionally all the carpet, upstairs and down, was soaked, and the wood floors had buckled. The downstairs ceilings had collapsed, and mildew was everywhere.
"We had to move out," Hickey said.
They spent a week at a local motel, then rented an apartment nearby.
The leak occurred at the end of July, and they weren't back home again until Dec. 21.
"They had to gut the kitchen, put all news cabinets in," Hickey said. All the carpet, the wood flooring, all the bedroom furniture had to be replaced. All the clothes and linens in the house had to be cleaned because of the musty smell.
Insurance didn't cover the entire replacement cost. To top things off, the company dropped their coverage once the work was completed.
"We'd been with the company over 20 years," Hickey said. "It was very hard to find another company."
To top things off, someone stole all their patio furniture before the home repairs were finished.
"I didn't even put in a claim for that," Hickey said. "If I'd known they were going to drop us, I would have!"
Back in the house just in time for Christmas, the Hickeys enjoyed a month or so of normal living. Judy Hickey was busy with her job as a kindergarten teacher's aide at Stafford Elementary School.
"I open a lot of milk cartons at snack time," she said with a smile.
Then came the day in February when she didn't feel well. The next morning she woke up with a pain in her right side. It was bad enough to make her go to the medical center.
"They sent me right to the emergency room," Hickey said.
The diagnosis was appendicitis; surgery was required.
Although she spent only 24 hours in the hospital, it took her 10 days to recover enough to go back to work.
"The last several months have been very stressful and trying for my mom. All the while, she has managed to still be the most awesome mom ever!" Fewell wrote in her nominating letter. "That's why we feel she is so deserving of your spa day makeover."
On Wednesday, Hickey arrived at the day spa in a seemingly endless white limousine furnished by Fredericksburg Limousines & Executive Sedans. It was a lot of space for a 5-foot-1-inch woman.
"I'm a nervous wreck," she said, as she filled out a sheaf of papers requesting information about her health and her beauty regimen. "I've never done anything like this."
But soon the lavender scent wafting from the steaming foot bath, the soothing classical string quartet on the CD player and the warmth of the heated client's chair began to work their magic.
"I'm game for anything!" Hickey said as she sipped water from a ruby goblet.
Nail technician Elena Abucewicz applied scrubs and lotions, massaged her feet and legs and painted her toenails crimson.
"It's a 'look-at-me' color," Hickey said with an impish grin.
Then it was on to Amanda Magrino for a French manicure. Again there were lotions and massages, and special oils to "feed the nail bed."
After the manicure, Hickey had a deluxe massage, a natural face lift and microderm abrasion. Makeup and hair were the final touches. Cybil Azevedo applied a soft foundation and two colors of blush "to define her cheekbones." Mascara, eye liner and a gold shadow on her eyelids made Hickey's vivid blue eyes even more noticeable.
Azevedo added two shades of gold to Hickey's naturally light hair, deepening the color, and cut it in layers to give it style.
"Aren't I lucky," Hickey crowed as she looked at herself in the mirror.
The total value of the services she received was $650 to $700, Tina Pilz said.
Hickey went home with an arrangement of miniature roses from Anita's Florist and a box of chocolate-covered strawberries from Edible Arrangements.
"It's been a wonderful day, a Cinderella thing," Hickey said as she gathered her belongings. "Then dingdingdingding, 12 o'clock. I go back to opening up milk cartons tomorrow."
But she said it with a smile.
To reach LUCIA ANDERSON:
Email: landerson@freelancestar.com
