Rappahannock residents remember Emily Hilscher

WOODVILLE - Rappahannock residents were at a loss for words Tuesday as shadows of big puffy clouds pushed over Woodville's quiet rolling cow pastures.

Everybody knows everybody in Woodville, the quiet rural Rappahannock County town where BlueRidgeMac is the most recognizable landmark before hitting Sperryville. The community was reeling a day after one of its own - 18-year-old Emily Jane Hilscher - became one of the first victims in the tragic Virginia Tech massacre which claimed 32 innocent students and teachers.

Emily was a 2006 Rappahannock County High School graduate and a freshman studying equine science and animal and poultry sciences at Tech. She was one of two killed at West Ambler Johnston Hall early Monday morning before a shooting rampage across campus claimed 30 more.

Stacks of newspapers at the Sperryville Corner Store proclaimed the sad news. A clerk there, who knew Emily since she was "yea high," said not many people were talking about it; they were just waiting for more facts to emerge so they could begin to comprehend this tragedy.

Cows ambled as usual in the tranquil foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It looked like an ordinary day, but there was an unmistakable haze of overwhelming grief in the air.

At Rose Hill Veterinary Practice, where Emily once worked as a veterinary assistant, Camilla Brown gingerly thumbed a portrait of her beaming her customary sunny smile underneath a black velvet show helmet.

"There wasn't anything she didn't do with a smile," Brown said, her eyes red from crying. She never stopped smiling, she continued. "Maybe when she slept."

Emily was home visiting a couple weeks ago, riding friend Sara Astbury said, wiping tears away with a tissue. She said Emily and her mother were looking to buy another horse, so they could ride together during the summer.

"She was really, really sweet," Astbury choked. "It shouldn't have happened. It shouldn't have happened to anyone for that matter."

Brown said Rose Hill Veterinary Practice - located across from Rappahannock County High - fielded phone calls all Tuesday from pet-owners who knew Emily.

"Lots of kids love animals," veterinarian Betty Meyers said.
Often when her young volunteers face the "hard realities" of caring for sick and injured animals, she said, that love begins to fade. That wasn't so with Emily.

"Kids come in here and last a month, and last a week," Meyers said. "(For Emily) to do that (care for sick and injured animals) with happiness and stay positive makes her very special."

"I think that's really true," Brown agreed. "She never, never had an unkind word for somebody else, which is rare for a teenager."

"I'm repeating the same stuff over and over again…(but) that's Emily," she said.

Katie Dolac can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 138 or kdolac@starexponent.com.