Sunday, December 28, 2008

HAPPY SGT. MARK LALLI DAY! Yes, that's correct. Today, in the city of Strongsville, Ohio, it is officially, by proclamation of Mayor Thomas Persiak and the Strongsville City Council, SGT Mark R. Lalli Day.

Mark's friends had an open house for Mark today and a "little bird" called the mayor's office and let him know that Mark was home for the holidays. Mayor Persiak arrived at the party and presented Mark with the official city proclamation. It was a very nice surprise for Mark and it was very appreciated. After the presentation and the applause, Mark grinned and said "I guess I should have shaved!!" During high school, Mark used to work for the mayor's son-in-law who had a landscaping business and mowed the mayor's lawn.

Mark's friends from childhood and high school showed up, along with most of their parents and several teachers. Word travels quickly in this town which has been dubbed the largest small town in the area. Strongsville has grown from a small suburb to a large city in the past 25 years, but it has definitely retained it's small town feel.

The photos below are Mark's friends in the group pose we parents requested and the one they wanted. We'll let you guess which is which!!!

Christmas Eve, December 24, 2008

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!

Needless to say this is turning out to be the best Christmas the Lalli Family has ever had. To have Mark and Jess here along with Peter and Richard's Aunt Genie, is just fabulous. The operative words here are "having Mark home".

A year ago we celebrated because his gift to us was waking up. This year it is because he is not only alive, but functioning better and better every day. He has the wonderful sense of humor he is known for, his cognitive level is excellent, and his health in general is very, very good. He has amazed us by walking around the kitchen with his walker and eating like he's never seen food before. Naturally, all his favorite dishes are being made and he is taking advantage to the max!

Peter posted the video he took at the airport. Mark's pipe band, The Red Hackle, showed up in force to greet him, for which we are very thankful and they were joined by the USO team from Cleveland. The Hackle have never taken Mark off their roster and have supported him through basic training, his deployment to Iraq and through love and prayers this entire year. They are a wonderful group of people.

We wish all of them, as well as everyone reading this a very blessed Christmas!

Monday, December 22, 2008

Hello again! I know it's been a month since the last post by Mark and for that we all apologize. It seems that when Mark went on the blog site to do his update, some kind of a glitch occurred with the administration of the site and we could not get into it again. With a little technical help from Peter, who is also an administrator of the site, we are up and running again.

We did hear over and over that we had to keep writing, and in all honesty we have been so busy it was not at the top of our list. However, after both Jess's mom and I both heard from women we did not even know who we ran into running errands on both sides of the world, within two days of each other, we thought we should do something about it!! I can only say we are overwhelmed with the number of people who have been following this blog of ours so regularly. We cannot believe you are so devoted to reading this and can't imagine that what goes on in our daily lives is that important, but we thank you all from the bottom of our hearts.

To fill everyone in, Mark is doing remarkably. He has continued with all the therapies and is making wonderful progress. He has been involved in some great recreational progams such as the kayaking and has even taken some scuba lessons in a community pool in Florida. He had the opportunity to play guitar with Charlie Daniels who visited the hospital with a young musician who comes to entertain the boys every month. And yes, he did get his guitar autographed! He has finally moved into his little hospital apartment after a very long delay. Currently, he is the only patient in the Transitional Program, but we expect more to be added after the Christmas break.

Mark and Jess arrived safely in Cleveland yesterday morning on a two week leave. They were a little taken aback by the cold weather (temps in the teens and dropping by nightfall to below zero) but the sun was shining and all was well. They were greeted at the gate by the USO here and were escorted to the main terminal where the Red Hackle Pipes & Drums welcomed Mark home in all their regalia (kilts that is) and played for him. Needless to say this attracted the attention of all those at the airport and Mark was given quite a welcome from everyone around. It was very heartwarming. We headed home for lunch and friends of Mark and Jess's arrived later in the day for dinner, which was so much fun.

Today started out with Jess and Shelley, a friend of Mark's, heading off to see the sights of Strongsville, namely the mall. They were met by PJ, Mark's best friend and he drove Jess around to see all different parts of town. Mark, Rich and I waited at home for the news crew from one of our local stations to do a follow up story on Mark. One of our local reporters, Tracy Carloss, has been covering Mark's progress from the day of the crash and she stopped by to do a piece for the evening news. Unfortunately, she notified us after the story aired that it had been shortened while she was anchoring the show because of time constraints. She is going to try to get the original length story posted on the website in the next day or so. If you'd like to watch just click below:



After our interview, Mark and Rich went off to do some early Christmas shopping (yes, they usually wait until the 24th)! They enjoyed their time out and I went on errands and managed to get this blog up and running again.

We will add the link for the original story when and if it becomes available. We do want to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and a blessed New Year. We know we are the luckiest people on earth and we hope that good fortune will follow all our dear friends and family who have supported us so much this past year. We will be forever grateful.