Stephanie Mendlow
Dr. Mendlow, whose cardiology practice served the Culpeper community for over 30 years, has died at age 81 from injuries sustained in a fall at her home in Madison. She is survived by her husband; Leighton Brown; her stepsons, Tony and Jesse, and their three children; and her siblings Julie Conger and Philip Mendlow.
Stephanie was born in New York City in 1944 to Cecille and Leonard Mendlow, a manufacturer of knitted outerwear. She was educated at Ecole Francais du Saint Esprit and subsequently
graduated high school from Friends Seminary in Manhattan. After attending Goucher College in Towson Maryland, she decided to dedicate her life to helping others through the practice of medicine. Trained at the New York State Downstate Medical School, she began her professional career as an intern at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, where she developed an interest in cardiology that led her to join the Pritikin Institute in Los Angeles as a resident. Pritikin was the avant-garde of our current understanding of how lifestyle is related to heart health. The concept that diet and exercise could play a major role in both prevention and rehabilitation of coronary vascular disease was scorned in some parts of the medical establishment. Informed by that training, she founded the cardiology department at Culpeper Medical Center, a first in bringing the discipline to a rural community.
On a weekend retreat to the Esalen Institute in Big Sur she met Leighton and fell in love. She fell so hard that she agreed to pick up stakes and move with him to a mountainside in rural Virginia where she resided until her death. For a city girl this was a big change, to which she adapted with great spirit and competence. For a few years they raised a flock of sheep, with Stephanie practicing cardiology in the daytime and midwifery at lambing, sometimes in the middle of the night, while living in a small shack. Eventually Leighton built a wonderful, airy post and beam house high up on the hillside. In 1995 they watched most of the hillside slide into the valley after 14 inches of rain had loosened its grip on the underlying rock. Miraculously their house was spared and they were evacuated by helicopter.
After her retirement Stephanie rediscovered her passion for art and, with the luxury of the time now available, took up painting with abandon. Her landscapes and still-life's shimmered with colorful renderings of nature and creative use of portraiture. Over the years she produced many pieces that are now treasured by her friends and institutions to which she contributed. And throughout her retirement found time to volunteer in Madison schools for literacy and art.
Stephanie was a person of indomitable determination to make the best of every situation, an essential skill in overcoming the many physical issues that had plagued her for her entire life.
But, more importantly, she was a consummately generous person, a delightful and interesting companion to all who had the opportunity to know her. Stephanie found opportunities to relieve suffering and bring enlightenment and humor to so many until her last days. She was a loving and kind sister, aunt and grandmother, and took great care and concern for the wellbeing and happiness of her nieces, nephews and grandchildren. We all will feel her absence deeply.
