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Winning Dancer Gives Nod to Mom in Performance

August 30, 2022

Digestive Health Center Director Lindsey Meehan took home top honors at Hartford Healthcare’s third annual Stars Dancing for Parkinson’s in May.

During the Beatles-themed event, Meehan and her dance partner, Vlad Astafiev, performed to “Let it Be.” It was an emotionally poignant performance as Meehan dedicated the night to her mother, Marilyn, who passed away in 2002 after a battle with multiple sclerosis. Meehan chose the song because Paul McCartney has said his inspiration for writing the Beetles standard was a dream he had of his mother Mary, who died when he was 14.

“This event and raising money for movement disorders is very special to me. I know my mom will be here in spirit with me,” she said before the event.

Stars Dancing for Parkinson’s, originally scheduled for May 2020 before the pandemic hit, benefits wellness programs offered for free at the David & Rhoda Chase Family Movement Disorders Center, part of the Hartford HealthCare Ayer Neuroscience Institute.

Other participants in this year’s competition were: Evan Fox, MD, medical director of psychiatry consultation liaison services at Hartford Hospital; Stefan McKosky, a member of the Connecticut Chapter of the American Parkinson’s Disease Association Board; Carla Nunziante, vice president of growth and acquisitions with the Hartford HealthCare Medical Group; Lynn Rossini, vice president of philanthropy at Hartford Hospital; Eric Smullen, senior vice president of the Hartford HealthCare Community Network; Sandeep Varma, MD, chief of medicine at Backus Hospital; and Cunegundo Vergara, MD, medical director of Hartford Hospital’s community health clinics.