By Martha Thomas
The July 30 flood that coursed through Ellicott City’s Main Street was responsible for three lives lost. Jessica Watsula, who had dropped her 10-year-old daughter off at her brother’s so she could spend the evening with friends, was swept away as she and her companions clung to a telephone pole when they realized they couldn’t reach their car. Joseph Anthony Blevins, a 38-year-old Windsor Mill resident and father of three was in his car with his girlfriend when floodwaters struck the car, sweeping it away. His companion escaped, but Blevins did not. In the days following the flood, as he and his wife, Sun, set about rebuilding their shop, Precious Gifts, John Peter Pacylowski, Jr., fell from the scaffolding in front of his Main Street store. “Her Mind” joins the victims’ friends and family, and the entire Ellicott City community in mourning these losses.*