By Patric Hedlund, TME

Militsa Brennan is the closest thing to a guardian angel most people have on this mountain—and you may not even know it.

She and her family have put in thousands of hours of work to keep the annual Mountain Communities Health Fair here, year after year. It is a one-day festival of free and low-cost health services for all ages—from dental checkups for kids to prostrate cancer screenings for men. Many lives have been saved here by the free screening tests for stroke warnings and breast cancer.

Militsa has also worked for years as the X-ray technician at Clinica Sierra Vista in Lebec.

You’ve seen Militsa at every Holiday Faire, Lilac Festival, Fiesta Days and Crafts Fair showing jewelry she makes at her Cuddy Valley Dreamweaver Ranch, where she also boards horses and keeps goats (she also makes dynamite goat cheese).

But in September this year, Militsa fell from a horse as she prepared for the September 11 Ride to Remember through Cuddy Valley, which she and her family have sustained for 15 years. She hit her head in the fall, and seriously injured her brain. She was airlifted…

This is part of the December 23, 2016 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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