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Terri Schiavo's 40th
birthday Wednesday -
Friends
and supporters of disabled woman send greetings, plan party
November 30, 2003
By Sarah Foster
To submit a letter to the editor: letters@worldnetdaily.com
Terri Schindler-Schiavo turns 40 Wednesday, and plans are in the works
for a celebration to honor the brain-disabled woman who suffered six
days of court-ordered starvation last month when the feeding tube that
sustains her was removed at the behest of her husband, Michael Schiavo.
Her life was saved only when Florida Governor Jeb Bush and the state
Legislature stepped in and ordered the feeding tube restored.
''We're making plans,'' said Pamela Hennessey, spokesperson for Terri's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler. ''It'll happen that is, if Terri lives till Wednesday without something happening to her first. But people should realize she's still in danger. A judge could simply order her feeding tube removed and the whole thing would start over.'' Besides a party, people from around the country are finding ways to mark the occasion and let Terri know they're on her side usually with e-mails and letters. Birthday cards are among the few things Terri is allowed to see in her room at the Hospice of the Florida Sun Coast, in Pinellas Park, where she has been for over three years. Although Schiavo will not permit flowers in her room, her parents and siblings are permitted to take her cards and small gifts. ''When people learned her birthday was coming up, they just started sending notes and cards and e-mails,'' Hennessey told WorldNetDaily. These have been arriving daily at the headquarters of the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation in St. Petersburg. Hennessey reports over 500 e-mails have come to the family's website, http://www.TerrisFight.org with more arriving every day prayers, words of encouragement, poems and even a couple of jokes. They were submitted with the promise that Terri's family would read each one to her. Students at the Margaret K. Lewis School for Exceptional Children in Panama City, Florida, reached out to Terri by making made dozens of birthday cards for her. Many show the outline of a hand with the thumb, index finger and ''pinky'' extended that's how to say ''I love you'' in American Sign Language. Some of the children needed help from assistants to draw their cards and write their names and ''Happy Birthday,'' but they understand very well about Terri and her plight. Many of them are fed by tube the same way she is. ''So many of these children are children with feeding tubes,'' said Susan Perry, a teacher at the school, when interviewed by WMBB News 13, the ABC TV channel in Panama City. ''They are human beings just like Terri. They want her to understand they know what she's going through, and if their feeding tubes were taken away from them they would go hungry. They just want to wish her a very happy birthday,'' said Perry. Adult clients at St. Andrew Bay Center in Lynn Haven, near Panama City, also made birthday cards for Terri, and these were added to those made by the youngsters at MKL School. The center is a private, nonprofit agency that teaches practical skills to developmentally retarded people so they can live independently. Over 100 cards were collected from the school and the center and hand-delivered Saturday to the Schindlers who shared them with Terri. A world of faces Hennessey said a local activist, Cheryl Ford, has come up with the idea of creating a collage of faces, ''absolutely one of the sweetest ideas I've ever heard.'' In an e-mail Ford asks those who can't be at the celebration on December 3, to e-mail a picture of ''yourself with your family, your family pet whatever'' to Fight4Terri@aol.com. She will print these out and assemble them into a collage with the heading: ''To our Terri, From the World of Faces who Love you!'' and present it to Terri's parents on their daughter's birthday. ''I know, I know!'' Ford wrote. ''This is a hurried last minute request, and I do apologize. I just thought about this idea when I was counting sheep last night.'' [Thursday]. She said the photos must be scanned and sent no later than Sunday as she'll need time to make the collage. ''Remember to smile pretty,'' she said. From the Schindlers WorldNetDaily has reported the Schindlers have fought their son-in-law, Michael Schiavo, in the state court system for six years over his determination to starve his wife to death and his claim that it's what Terri would have wanted. The courts have consistently ruled that because he is her legal guardian, as well as her husband, he has the right to order removal of his wife's feeding tube. Terri left no written directive, but Schiavo swears she told him in casual conversations that she would never want to be kept alive by ''artificial means.'' The Schindlers do not believe their daughter made such end-of-life statements and dispute a judge's ruling that she is in a ''persistent vegetative state'' from which she will never recover. They say Terri responds to them and could be rehabilitated if given the therapy that Schiavo has refused to provide. Robert and Mary Schindler would like everyone who cares about Terri to join them in wishing her a happy birthday. Here are some suggestions of small gifts and other items from a list posted on the website.
Cards and gifts should be sent to the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation, 4615 Gulf Blvd., 103-104, St. Petersburg, Fla., 33706. Mary Schindler says she is overwhelmed and grateful for the ongoing effort to save her daughter. ''It helps to know that there are so many people who recognize that Terri is merely a disabled woman who deserves to be given a chance,'' she says. ''We want desperately to continue to care for her and to get her the therapy that she needs.'' Information, including court filings, are posted on the Schindler family website: http://www.TerrisFight.org Read WorldNetDaily's unparalleled, in-depth coverage of the fight to save Terri Schindler-Schiavo. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35305
Copyright 2003 WorldNetDaily
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