Inspiring Women Fall 2018

share a room.
• The companion, if able, can pay the determined fees for both OR work on the ranch in
exchange.
• Training is for the patient AND the companion, if the companion is the spouse or parent.
• Food (vertical gardens, elevated organic & hydroponic planting, etc.) would be produced
by the patient and companion.
• Animals (verified to have calming affects on patients) would serve as mascots and/or food.
Patients and companions would also work this area.
After organizing this idea on paper, it was so easy to go
after it! The hard part was that society was already stuck
in their staunch prejudices. Over the years I have spoken
with 3 different Presidential administrations, mayors,
governors and other politicians just to be graciously
turned down time after time. However, things have been
changing and I still maintain hope and continue to work.
Today I am the Coordinator of a group of men and
women who have different conditions of paraplegia and
quadriplegia. I have worked with APNOP, for close to 30
years now. They are incredibly talented patient, and
grateful people who have basically been thrown to
destiny’s whim. Being that they are very complicated
patients in a Third World country and neither their families nor their country can supply all the
needs they have, it was my decision to volunteer and advocate on their behalf. I sincerely
believe that with education and guidance for patients and family members in these situations,
we can indeed provide a definite, respectable and fulfilling life that allows them to support
themselves and their families and remove themselves from the precarious situations with
government housing, if they should be that fortunate…
My Mother was my role model when I was growing up. Even though she did not know how to
sew, when I needed something for my school club, she would whip it up and when I needed to
be taken someplace and we’d get lost, she would say, “we’re not lost, we’re sight-seeing!” and
when Dad wasn’t around and I needed something fixed, Mom would fix it and say, “Your Mom
can do ANYTHING!” I believed her, because she always did…
Today my role models are all the strong and courageous men and women who go on day after
day, struggling to keep families together in this world that seems to have no logic, and people
working to get projects together for situations they cannot even relate to, and single mothers or
fathers doing it all on their own and
government officials with strong family
values that are not able to make a
stand for their beliefs. I see heroes
and role models everywhere I look.
I tried to raise my children to be
considerate and conscientious of
people who had special needs no
matter what. I tried to help them
understand that we are so privileged,
living in two countries and having so
many blessings in our lives. I tried to
teach them to help when they could,
whenever they could and not to wait
to be asked.
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