Nellysford
Nelson County, Virginia
I first met Ginger & David Drumheller about 20 years ago. We all used to go to a restaurant called D’Ambolas. That’s where Brewing Tree is now. Back then it was such an incredible Italian restaurant. This was in the days before breweries. There were very few restaurants in the county other than the resort.
In those days we had no kids. We were in the starting phases of the magazine and knee deep in renovating our recently purchased farmhouse in Greenfield just down the road from the restaurant. Once we knocked off in the late afternoon, we’d head to D’Ambolas and have a drink at the bar and the something to eat. Invariably we’d see Ginger and David there every time we were there.
Anyone that used to bank at the old Wachovia Bank in Nellysford (location of now closed Wells Fargo – and new ReMax office) will remember Ginger. She worked there for years.
As the years ticked by we lost touch once D’Ambola’s closed. Until, Margaratas opened in Nellysford. Over the nearly 10 year run of the restaurant Ginger and David became a fixture there. So did we. A lot of us would meet there for lunch almost daily and talk about anything and everything.
We were quite the group of mutts that got together and bonded over the years. Lots of us from dentists to contractors, and more. Ginger, and often David when he could get away from the orchard business in Covesville, would be at the corner spot on the bar having lunch.
We knew Ginger was getting in poor health over the last year, but she kept chugging along. She was slower, needed someone to drive her in that last year or two, but she was still that lovable, sometimes prickly woman we’d all come to adore. Margaritas closed in October of 2023. In that general time frame her husband David had a serious car accident. There was a loose cow on Route 29 that he and several other drivers hit. David spent weeks in the hospital at UVA, but is now home still recovering. Ginger’s health continued to decline during this time and a few days ago it became apparent she was nearing the end and entered hospice.
Like so many others I have mentioned here not too long ago, Ginger was part of the fabric, the landscape of Nelson.
It saddens me to see the county losing so many that folks today will never even know existed, but it makes me smile that I did know Ginger and can share the many remembrances of her years here long before she passed.
Thank you for the memories Ginger.
Ginger’s complete obituary here.
