Joan Pena
Last October, not long after our second Challenge Walk, my husband and I received a phone call from Craig Thorpe. Patty was in the hospital. This would be the first of several times in the weeks to come that we would receive such news.
Each time, as we jumped in the car, driving the short distance to the hospital, we worried that this would be a "bad time" for her.
Each and every time she greeted us with a smile. She laughed while she tried to persuade us to have her discharged in time to make a party. She was, as she always is, incredibly strong and full of life. So full of life that it often was she who lifted our spirits when we thought it was our job to lift hers.
She told me recently how scared she had been and how close she had come to losing her leg. I knew that but never let on when it was happening. That's not what friends do.
Friends sit by your hospital bed and watch "America's Funniest Home Videos" with you. They bring you ice cream even when you're not feeling up to it...just in case you are. They never find it too difficult or are too busy to stop in and see you. Friends bring you way too spicey soup and then eat it themselves while you watch and eat jello. Friends think "Walk 50 miles? Yeah, I can do that!"
Patty has so many friends and family that care about her, that her hospital room should have had a cover charge. We all would have paid.
Patty, I walk beside you because you are my friend. I hate MS but I love you...jello, hospitals and all those rashes you made me look at.
