Well, today Mark had a wonderful day. His session on the Lokomat went very well even though the machine stopped for no reason and Mark was left hanging in the air like a pinata (as he calls himself). And again, he took to the parallel bars after the Loko session and walked back and forth three times, rested a bit and then did it again twice.
As for the rest of the day, he made the rounds of all the therapists and this afternoon attended the promotion ceremony for our friend Anthony C. Thompson, Sr. Anthony is a Naval medical corpsman who was seriously wounded in Iraq in April 2007. Anthony's wife and son, Ivonne and AJ, who I have spoken about many times, live with us at Fisher House. Their family members were here as well as many military men, including the corpsman who is credited with saving Anthony's life when the bridge he and his Marines were patrolling was blown up by a suicide bomber. The Navy saw fit to promote Anthony, even though he is unable to take the necessary tests usually required for promotion. It was a very moving ceremony and I did not make it through with dry eyes. For that matter, most people didn't.
One of the best presentations of the afternoon was to our little (note the possessive "our") AJ. He was officially made an honorary Department of Veterans Affairs employee and was given his very own ID name tag, with photo. He is now the President of the Smile Squad by the Office of the Director. We are sure a couple of rules were bent for this presentation, but he loves the name tag and chewed on it the rest of the afternoon!!!
To see news coverage of our dear friends, go to the following link:
http://www.wfla.com/
Monday, August 4, 2008
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4 comments:
Great story about your friend thanks. Hey Mark, Mr. Pinata don't let it beat you up sounds like your winning.
Drew
Thankyou Ann , its always so good to hear how well Mark is doing and you make us smile when you add the little pieces of his wicked sence of humour.
We loved watching the news clip
...such an honour for Anthony and Ivonne.
We did try to spot any one we knew but alas you guys were obviously "camera shy".x
What a nice news story! And AJ is adorable, obviously deserving of his new title!!! As always it is great to hear about Mark's improvement and impressive attitude even when left "hanging"!
Thanks for the link to see the ceremony for your friend. What an amazing and inspiring example for us all. Aj, of course, is adorable.
It goes without saying that many of the military continue to serve in harms way and we all need to take time to pray for their safe return. Better yet, just pray to bring them home.
Mark, your blog is always and inspiration to me and my family. Keep doing the "lo-co-mo-tion"! I think that was a hit in the 60's or seventies! Get that groove on and keep dancing! Miss you.
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