CityView Magazine

CityViewNC.com | 33 HELP US DELIVER MEALS AND MUCH MORE 910-484-0111 / 339 Devers Street, Fayetteville, NC 28303 / www.ccccooa.org Since 1968, the Council on Older Adults has been helping our community's most vulnerable older adults maintain independence by providing supportive services to assist them in remaining at home for as long as possible. Please remember us during CCF's Giving Tuesday matching campaign! Make a donation between Nov. 21 at 9 a.m. and Nov. 30 at 5 p.m. and have your gift amplified. You can make your online gift at www.ccccooa.org/donate or www.cumberlandcf.org To help your family stay healthy. Quality preventive care is essential to good health. It's why we're here, close to home, providing compassionate, individualized care to folks of all ages. So you, your family, and our entire community can all be their very best. From the routine to the unforeseen, count on us. To find a healthcare provider call 800-485-6385 Enhanced cleaning, mask requirements and social distancing to help keep you safe. you have a negligent discharge or something like that." e ensuing struggle with identity also affected his weightliing prowess. Ballash says he was once ranked in the Top 25 in his weight class nationwide. Now, two years shy of reaching 40, he has a head full of spikey black hair and a bushy red beard that has turned white around the edges. Woodworking would be the answer. Woodworking would be the medicine he needed. e intricate detail work on handcraed live-edge wood furniture — designed for home or office — allowed him to concentrate on his trade rather than the constant discomfort of his physical injuries. He opened Ballash Woodworks in 2018, specializing in custom design, custom furniture and design fabrication. As he says on his website, Kurt Ballash found peace in the process of creation. From pain, a purpose In 2017, Ballash attended a military retreat through the Lone Survivor Foundation in Corpus Christi, Texas. While there, he tried different treatments and therapies for post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety while using meditation and yoga to stave off the pain. He also tried acupuncture. To him, it was like the therapists were throwing everything at a wall, hoping something would stick. None of it worked for him. While at the retreat, he talked with other veterans who were trying to heal from invisible wartime wounds. "I kind of came home with this," says Ballash, dressed in a weathered Popeye T-shirt. "If I'm going to be in pain, I need to have a purpose." Jamie died at age 40 on March 31, 2020, about a month and a half short of her 41st birthday. ey met when he became her personal trainer at the former Bordeaux Day Spa in Fayetteville. ey were together for a little over 12 years in all and married in 2011. Nine years later, she was gone, and his suffering only worsened with the loss. "Jamie was the central factor of where I am today," he says. Jamie had a creative soul. She was an Nov 29, 2022 By giving to the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra this Giving Tuesday you can help educate, entertain, and inspire our community through music. This year your giving will support the Fayetteville Symphony Youth Orchestra and our free community concert series. Learn more about us by scanning the QR code or visiting our website at www.fayettevillesymphony.org.

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