Mississippi TM Support Group
| Monthly Support Group Meeting Saturday, June 14, 2003 This was our first official meeting in our new, permanent home at Methodist Rehab Center in Jackson, MS. Rehab had given us a nice room with two long tables, a round table, TVs with VCRs, plenty of comfortable chairs and even a sofa. It has been hard to write this summary. There were three TMer, and six family members of the TMers. Our meeting was a bittersweet this time for most of us. We had a new member, Bettye Coleman of Jackson, join us. Our meeting began with Bettye telling us about herself. After having problems for some time, she was diagnosed with TM in January 2000, but in June 2002, after an eye exam she was sent to a Optometrist/Neurologist. Due to the pressure that had built up in her eye, her Entomologist felt that there was more going on than he could determine. Here she was diagnosed with MS. She is a T-4 paraplegic. After many test and MRI's, they found lesions on her brain. The good news was, it was her birthday, and she chose to come and spend time with us. She was turning 57 years old. She had brought her daughter Tracey and her two children with her to the meeting. One of our regular members, Dorothy Danielson could not make it to this meeting this time. This is the first meeting Dorothy has missed. She was bitten by a brown recluse spider. She had to be in the hospital for several days, and still had the stitches in her when I spoke with her. Another of our regular member, Roxane Crawford, will be leaving us. This is the last meeting she will attend as a resident of Mississippi. Roxane has never missed a meeting, either. She is moving to Louisiana. We are all happy for her, but sad to see her go, as we will miss her. Finally, we paid our respect to Mike Whitfield. Sadly, we lost Mike on May 31, 2003. His wife, Wilma, was there to tell everyone about Mike's battles and his bravery. She spoke of how he fought to the end, and did it with such class, as only Mike could do. He had a positive attitude and a smile to the end. Wilma's sisters had come for Mike's funeral, and honored us by attending one of our meetings. They are Jeanne Huizen of Zevenaar, The Netherlands and Anjo Lambert of Borne, The Netherlands, At the conclusion of our meeting, we said bye to Roxane, but promised to keep in touch, and ask Wilma to remain a part of our group. We are hoping she will choose to, as she will have much to contribute. Once again, we all return to our lives for another month. I'm hoping all will return next month and others will slowly start joining us. I am changing the way I do the pictures, also. From now on, I will be posting only pictures of TMers, and only if we have a new member join the group. Then I will post a group picture of the TMers.
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Document: http:// www.myelitis.org /local/mississippi/meeting030614.htm
Last Modified: Monday, 28-May-2007 12:19:26 PDT