On Thursday, June 22, with help from her family, Virginia Roman removed her belongings from her office on West Maple Avenue, leaving only a note on the door: "It's been a great run, and I've enjoyed all of you."
After 39 years of practicing speech pathology in the area, Roman, a resident of Vienna, is now retiring.
"I always said, 'It's been fun and games, and when it ceases to be fun and games, it's time to stop.' Well, it never ceased to be fun and games, but it was time to stop," she said.
Through her work, Roman helped pioneer a field that was just emerging when she was in college. She said she began studying for an English degree at Indiana University, but she decided the field was flooded and looked for a smaller niche. A "very dramatic" teacher inspired her to explore speech pathology, and there she found a fit, she said. "It was full of speech, and I was full of speech."
IN HER FIRST CLASS, there were five people.
At 22, she earned her master's degree from the University of Kentucky, and she worked for a year at a rehabilitation center for children with cerebral palsy in Johnstown, Pa. Then, she took a 14-year hiatus to raise a family of four.
At 41, she re-entered the field, working for Fairfax County Public Schools. She worked at Mosby Woods, Mantua and Chesterbrook elementary schools, as well as Robinson Secondary School.
While Roman was at Robinson, she and three others created a speech and language program for all the county's public high schools. "We set it up and set it in motion, so [high schools] had speech therapy after that," she said.
The next year, while at Chesterbrook, she began helping to create the Preschool Diagnostic Center in Falls Church, designed to provide early evaluation of developmental disabilities.
During this time, Vienna resident Jean Richards worked as her assistant. "She's an outstanding teacher. Just outstanding," said Richards. "I've seen her get children who have real problems in speech and bring them out so they can speak normally."
She described Roman as an instructor who used patience, intelligence and a sense of humor to get results from the children with whom she worked. "She's wonderful to work with, and she's very easy to get along with," she added.
After 11 years with the public schools, Roman decided to open a private practice. Again, she was at the front of a rising tide. "No one was going into private practice from county schools. So I took a gamble, and it worked out," she said.
Her first office was on Maple Avenue in the Executive Building, which was recently torn down. For many years, she spent her mornings there and afternoons at private Catholic schools in Arlington. At the time when she had the Arlington Diocese as a client, she had five employees to handle the case load. Eventually, she phased that out and worked more or less by herself.
The advantage to running a private practice, she said, was the variety in her clients, who spanned ages from kindergarten to geriatric and with whom she worked on disorders from cerebral palsy to aphasia to stuttering and articulation. However, she admitted, "I liked the children, and they'll always be special because that's how I got my start. Also, I think they kept me young."
ONE OF THOSE children was the daughter of Vienna resident Deanne McGranahan, who called Roman "one of our favorite people."
"She's an extremely gifted teacher, and her way with children is so gentle and enthusiastic," said McGranahan, calling Roman "an inspiration to children and adults."
She said her daughter, who was 6 when she worked with Roman last year, described her as "pretty, nice and helpful."
"Whatever she does with them, she has a gift," said McGranahan. "She knows exactly how much pressure to put on them and how to keep it fun." She added that, under Roman's tutelage, her daughter had mastered her verbal problem area.
One of Roman's adult clients was Oakton resident Lina Woodall, who has multiple sclerosis and began working with Roman in December of 2001 to increase the volume of her voice. Her husband, Jon, who still sometimes helps her communicate, read a brief statement his wife had prepared. "Beyond the exercises she gave me to strengthen my voice, she inspired and encouraged me to pursue challenges I would not have otherwise considered," he read.
The two had selected a quote from noted humanitarian Albert Schweitzer to describe Roman's impact on Woodall: "At times, our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us."
"She just seemed like she had unlimited energy," added Woodall's husband. He also noted that they had remained friendly since his wife's therapy ended.
Following her retirement, Roman said, she and her husband plan to continue traveling, adding to the 60 countries they have already visited. She said she has also decided to learn to use the computer and has already signed up for beginning computer classes through the county's adult education program. "Once I learn to start the machine, I plan to do something else with it," she cracked.
If computer lessons do not work out, she said, she will pursue something else. "As my son says, the way that they could do away with me is to tie me to a chair for an hour. There's just too much to do and too much to learn."