CAPE WOMAN TO BE HONORED FOR SAVING GRANDMOTHER

About 5:30 the evening of May 11, 1997, Mother's Day, Giboney Juden arrived home from her job at Target. Her mother, LaDonna, had left moments earlier and was to return in about 20 minutes.

Giboney, who now is 18, walked to the rear of her parents' Perry Avenue home. Her grandmother, Mary Lou Winchester, 73, was sleeping in a nearby bedroom.

Giboney heard her grandmother cough. Winchester had suffered a brain aneurysm on Valentine's Day 1996 that limited her speech and riddled her with other ailments.

The bed she was lying on was tall, and Giboney couldn't see her well. So she went in the room to check on her and help her out of bed.

When Winchester turned over, she began coughing blood. She was suffering hemorrhaging caused by an abdominal aneurysm.

Giboney rushed to the front room, which had a phone with a long cord. Hurrying back to her grandmother's side, Giboney dialed 911.

She consoled her grandmother while speaking with the emergency dispatcher. Tears welled in her eyes. But she never lost composure.

Her sister, Sally, 12, wanted to know what was happening. She tried to enter her grandmother's room but Giboney stopped her. She told Sally to go outside and hold up a sign so paramedics would find the house easily.

Only after the emergency workers had taken Winchester to Southeast Missouri Hospital did the weight of the past 20 minutes hit her.

"After I saw them take her out, and my mom and dad (Terry) walked in... ." Giboney didn't finish. As on Mother's Day 1996, tears welled in her eyes.

More than a year after the incident and monthlong hospital stay, Winchester, a Lutheran Home resident, is better.

And Giboney, a recent Cape Girardeau Central High School graduate who will leave soon to pursue a business management degree at Utah Valley State College in Orem, Utah, will be feted Friday. She'll join others from outstate Missouri and Illinois at Super Heroes Day at Six Flags St. Louis.

Giboney and her family will receive a two-day admission to the theme park, two nights' accommodations and meals. She'll also get a $500 savings bond and a certificate.

The Southeast Missourian solicited nominations for Super Heroes and helped prepare them before they were judged by a local panel.

Giboney's mother said she submitted an entry for her daughter because of her years of devoted care for her grandmother. Giboney won the award because of her singular action, but it was indicative of every day she is with Winchester, her mother said.

And she praised the "wonderful" emergency workers as heroes, also.

"I was just really proud of Gibbey," said her mother. "She not only did this for her grandmother on this day, but she helps her all the time. I'm sorry Gibbey had to handle it, but I think she handled it a lot better probably than I would have."

Giboney said it was just a natural reaction "because I love my grandmother." She said she didn't seek any awards, but she'll go to Six Flags and enjoy the rides.

"I'll throw up a couple times, but that's fine," she said with a laugh.