Gibson, Heidi: - Patricia H. W. "Heidi" Gibson spent her early years in Germany with her family. It was a magical time for her and the experience influenced her greatly. When she was a child, her parents nurtured her creative spirit in music and art. Returning to Virginia, she graduated in 1980 from Colonial Heights High School. Later that year, she married her high school sweetheart, Don. In 1985 she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Ms. Gibson refused to let MS define her. She began her journey by staying positive and keeping humor strong in her heart. Art became her outlet. She earned a Certificate in Fine Art from John Tyler Community College in 1994 and began teaching art to adults and children. In 1995, the John Randolph Medical Center in Hopewell, Virginia, commissioned her to do a painting of the historic Flowerdew Hundred Windmill, and later, of Shirley Plantation. In 1999, she was honored to create the drawings for A Chookamook Came Over for Breakfast in the Progress-Index newspaper ... when the world got its first look at a Chookamook.