Terri Schiavo birthday party without guest of honor
 
 
(Note: This article has Terri's birth date wrong -- it is December 3, not Dec. 2 as reported.)
 
December 16, 2004
 
 
 

Bob and Mary Schindler hold up one of two birthday cakes for their daughter, Terri Schiavo, who is at the center of a “right-to-die” debate. The party was hosted by www.Terrisfight.org. Photo by Joni B. Hannigan.

Probably by Joni B. Hannigan

Florida Baptist Witness

P.O. Box 10289

Jacksonville, FL  32247-0289

jhannigan@floridabaptistwitness.com or 904-596-3167 or 800-226-8584 x 3165

To submit a Letter to the Editor: http://www.floridabaptistwitness.com/editorletter.fbw (web form; 250-word limit)

Pinellas Park, Florida (FBW) - Family and friends of a 41-year-old disabled woman at the center of a “right-to-die” dispute met at a park pavilion December 12 to celebrate her December 2 [WRONG: Terri's birth date is December 3rd] birthday.

The guest of honor was unable to attend.

Locked away in a Pinellas Park nursing home about ten blocks away, Terri Schiavo is not allowed to leave her room. She’s been ordered to be starved to death twice. Her visits with her family are limited and she is not allowed to be involved in any kind of rehabilitation.

In a case pro-life advocates say may decide the future of euthanasia in the United States, the U.S. Supreme Court may have the final say as to whether Terri Schiavo, a disabled woman living in Florida, lives or dies.

Lawyers for Florida Governor Jeb Bush filed an appeal with the high court December 1, 2004, asking the justices to take the case and overturn a ruling by the Florida Supreme Court that could lead to her death.

The woman at the center of the legal debate, Schiavo has been in what some doctors consider a persistent vegetative state since 1990, when she collapsed in her home. Her husband and legal guardian, Michael Schiavo -- who has fathered two children with his live-in girlfriend -- has sought the removal of his wife’s feeding tube for nearly a decade, saying it is what she would have wanted. However, no written request from Terri Schiavo exists.

Terri Schiavo’s parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, have long maintained that their daughter has not received the rehabilitation and care she requires.

Schiavo’s feeding tube was removed in October 2003, but the Florida legislature passed a law giving Bush the authority to order the re-insertion of the tube. He did so, and Michael Schiavo challenged the constitutionality of the law.

Terri’s siblings, Robert “Bobby” Schindler Jr. and Suzanne Vitadamo, and Suzanne’s daughter, Alex Carr, 11, joined attorneys, health care workers, ministers and others in the park to sing “Happy Birthday,” listen to special music and hear an update from a Schindler attorney on strategy related to guardianship matters before the state’s appellate court.

Angel Watson, who works with the Caring & Sharing Center for Independent Living in Tampa shared her story about being disabled after a skiing accident which resulted in her being considered in a “persistent vegetative state.”

Terri Schiavo needs therapy, Watson said.

“We need to get Terri out of the one little room that she’s stuck in,” Watson said. “Each and every one of you are her voice. Use it!”

Angel Watson, from the Caring & Sharing Center for Independent Living in Tampa, spoke about a skiing accident which left her paralyzed and how her family had to decide whether to “pull the plug.” - Photo by Joni B. Hannigan.

Thaddeus Malanowski (r), a retired military chaplain and a Catholic priest who visits Terri Schiavo, talks with a musician about his unlikely friendship with Elvis Presley in 1956-58 when both men were in the U.S. Army at Bad Nauheim, Germany, and Presley confided to him after the death of his mother. The musician, Wayne Galley, a native of Australia, shares a bit of his own past, that includes being a bodyguard for superstar Michael Jackson, until just after Jackson’s arrest in 2004. Photo by Joni B. Hannigan.

Alex Carr, 11, Bob and Mary Schindler’s granddaughter and Terri Schiavo’s niece, helps clean up after the birthday party for her disabled aunt. Photo by Joni B. Hannigan.

Suzanne [Schindler Carr] Vitadamo (r) [Terri's sister] wipes a tear after she mounts the platform with her family to thank guests for attending the celebration. Vitadamo credited her mother and father with saving Terri’s life again and again, and persevering in the face of great pain and disappointment. Photo by Joni B. Hannigan.