Recent Photos From Tom Bray

Current Hospital

Craig Hospital New Room 210 West!

If you want to send cards...etc. the address is

Craig Hospital Patricia Schmidt 3425 South Clarkson St. Englewood, CO 80110
(303)789-8254

E-mail's, cards and notes will all go in Pat's new scrapbook.

We know your love is here. Debra

Mailing List Subscription Information The Aunt Pat Mail List

It's a weekend and what a great week.

This week went fast, and once again it seems as though you have to step back and take a look from a
distance in order to grasped the improvements. As sister Kay points out Pat is now putting three and four 
words together in any length of a sentence. Until now she was lucky to get out any two words that you
could understand and no one seemed to mind if they were applicable to the conversation or not. As time
would have it she gets right with it now. Karen Luncford (the teaching wife of another ex patroller) pointed out 
that in her school classes it is not uncommon for kids and adults to grasp larger words easier and therefore 
spit them out more frequently and more clearly, while learning or reconnecting with a language.  

Last night Deb, Laura, and cousin Mark (from Kauai) called and she wasted no time picking up the phone to
see how his flight was. The greeting began with Hi Laura-----and went on from there. As you know Laura
spends a lot of AM time with Pat however this was the first time she was on the other end of the phone, you
would not believe her phone skills. She loves talking on the phone (which is no surprise) so give her a call. 
About 5 minutes later Tom, Kay and Ardell called, and she wasted no time in picking up the phone
to say hi. Pat loves the telephone and I am sure by the end of next week she will be giving the receptionist
on 2 west a break from the switchboard.

It is too early for me to tell how much is too much to wear her out, or how much it takes to put her to sleep.
When the phone rang we were in the middle of reading a poem about "Love" form Gary Jagger ( an ex patrol 
friend turned nurse in Long Island).  I am not sure if it was too deep, to lengthy, or just interrupted to often, 
any way we got through it and Pat was intent on listing to all of it. Next we move on to the list of jokes that 
Liz sent, most of them brought a smile to her face.

After watching her involvement with both of these written peaces I started digging for her favorite, Leana and Ollie 
jokes, one would think at Swedish Hospital they would have a library full of Leana and Ollie jokes. The library 
was closed for the night and as it were I managed to find the treasured list sent to Utah by the Andersons. They
were a hit.

By now it was 7:30 and it was enough for Pat and she wanted to skip her 7:00 pm shower and go right to bed.
Lisa said not and so I said good night and started up the hill for home. 

Pat's physical strength is also getting noticeably stronger. She is standing without hesitation and walks
to and from the bathroom (under close supervision). Lisa made the comment that soon Pat won't be needing
her help to go to bathroom.

Oh yes thing brings us to the athlete part of the update. When I arrived Friday afternoon everyone could
not wait to tell what a star Pat was a that afternoon in mat class. It would seem they played volleyball and
Pat stood up and was quite a competitive star once see got the basics down.  

A big week with small steps, what a blessing time is.

PLS 

Aunt Pat & Uncle Larry