I've had a number of people ask about Pat Townson, and until now I've kept silent. However, I've found out from Pat's mother that his situation is worse than I'd thought, and she gave me permission to publish the details.
Pat's recovery is not going as well as hoped: he has the use of only one arm, and although he now has a motorized wheelchair, he has had great difficulty communicating and managing his affairs.
In addition, Pat broke the phone he had, and there's no way to get in touch with him and find out if the provider fixed it, and if that wasn't bad enough, one of Pat's caregivers ran up a multi-hundred dollar bill on the account, which Mike Sandman has been paying for. Mike has been a great friend to both Pat and to the Digest, but he's got a business to run, and he has to write the check, so I support Mike's decision to terminate the account.
Needless to say, this isn't great news and it isn't easy to talk about. The most important part of recovery from a CVA is support: my relatives who have been through this process always talked about the difference it made to know people cared.
I think the priority at this point is to get Pat back in touch with the world. He qualifies for "lifeline" telephone service, which is less than $5.00 a month, but in order to get it he'll have to pay off $80 he owes to Sage. I'm open to suggestions on how to do this without risking his caregiver running up another large bill(1).
For the moment, I'm going to ask that the readers write to Pat and let him know that he's still valued and that we're thinking about him.
His snail address is:
Patrick Townson
611 East Poplar Independence KS 67301Believe me, it's important that you write.
Thanks in advance.
Bill Horne Temporary Moderator
P.S. Please keep Mike Sandman in mind if you need telecom hardware: although Mike declined my offer of some ads in the digest and/or web page to help cover Pat's phone bill, I think he deserves your business. Mike's web site is at