One Year Anniversary Summary

Well, hello everyone, after a long absence. It's been so long that townsendnews.com expired. And a squatter grabbed it! Shoot. I'm going to try grab all of the content from the old host and bring it forward here.

I have received a few emails in the last two weeks from friends around the world. I feel bad for not posting an entry. That first weekend was very busy. We actually had a party with some friends and family that were there in the hospital the first night. It was really fun. But alas that weekend, ended up being really busy so I couldn't post. And given the difficult of writing the "Open letter to Novell" the night before, I knew it would take a while. That email actually took me an hour to write. Go figure. I think some of it was that it is hard to write about personal things to a known broad audience. And some of it was that I wanted to be brief but communicate three things: gratitude, current status and bring to memory to events that transpired for many of us a year ago.

Responses to that email and other emails I have received over the last two weeks have been very kind and supportive. There were a few that have been more about the new perspective people have gained after considering "What would I be like if this happened to me?" This is really what I have been contemplating these last couple of weeks.

Having been paralyzed for a year now, all of us have passed one instance of each of the holidays and celebrations that occur annually. And there are a few that are still to come because I was in the hospital when they came and went. The first of these was Novell Brainshare. Within the next two weeks, we'll pass Adam's birthday and Easter. But throughout the year, there have been birthdays, Ellen and my wedding anniversary, Christmas, the New Year, Halloween, Valentine's Day and everything else. I can't say that each was celebrated with total acceptance of our new life. You just can't help recalling previous celebrations. Valentine's Day and our anniversary was particularly weird for Ellen and I. Ellen, of course, was very kind and loving on Valentine's Day. She sent some flowers to Novell that still sit on my little conference table. I tried to do the most most cliche Valentine's that I possible could. It was my way of saying, "See I'm still just like 80% of every other man in the world." So I had 12 dozen red roses delivered and hand carried chocolates in a heart shape box to her after work. It was fun. But what still pained was that I have not found a viable substitute for dancing. This is really what she wants. Any ideas anyone?

I'll post a few more over the weekend. What would you like to hear about? What are you just dying to know about? Here's some potential topics:

Ode to my wheelchair
How do the hand controls work in the Subaru?
How do you get dressed?
What about the spasms after a year?
What's next for rehabilitation?
Update on the new house.
How are the teenagers doing?
What about the younger kids?
What do some people say that really bugs you?
What do some people say or do that you really like?
More pictures.

Feedback welcome.

-Steve