Out of place

Alyce Driver seemed slightly out of place at the press conference in a packed third-floor hallway at the University of Maryland Dental School Wednesday afternoon.

A bank of cameras faced Driver as she listened quietly, her eyes shaded by dark sunglasses, to the announcement that the dental school had received a several thousand dollar grant to help underprivileged children receive oral health care. Driver wouldn’t even have been at the press conference, sitting beside Congressman Elijah E. Cummings, had her 12-year-old son Deamonte not died just six months ago of an untreated tooth infection.

As it was, the Prince George’s County resident was the only person at the event who didn’t speak. Cummings began the press conference by informing the journalists in attendance that Driver wished not to answer questions. Instead, dressed in a striped button-down shirt and black slacks, long slim braids falling down her back, the mother sat silently and listened as Cummings admonished President Bush for his war spending and pleaded for more funding for dental care.

The only noise she made was to sniffle once and clap quietly, facing the giant black-and-white photograph of her son that flanked the table, as officials signed the agreement to help other low-income kids get the basic dental care they need.

-KAREN BUCKELEW, Daily Record Business Writer