Arranging a TMA Support Group Meeting in Ireland

I have sent out letters to those people I have on my mailing list from Ireland asking whether our members would like to have a meeting next year. It would be planned for early summer. I am currently waiting for responses. If you are interested in participating in a support group meeting, please get in touch with me. Also, if you are interested in getting involved in our support group, please write, call or send me an email message.

Quilt Fundraiser for the TMA

I completed the quilt in time to bring it to Baltimore for the symposium. It was displayed for the first time at the Sunday morning forum during the symposium. If you would like to see photographs of the quilt, they are posted on the Baltimore page of the TMA web site. We are currently in the process of finding someone in the United States willing to take on the responsibility for conducting an auction or a raffle of the quilt. All of the proceeds will go to the TMA. If there is someone interested in taking on this responsibility, please get in touch with Sandy Siegel. I hope we can raise a lot of money from the international quilt. The quilt represents the international effects of TM and the international reach of the TMA. I am hoping that we can get worldwide participation in this effort. Thank you!

Baltimore Symposium July 2001 and "What I Did on My Summer Vacation"

As in Seattle I found this symposium gave a great feeling of togetherness for TM members. There was a wealth of information from the doctors, although the information from doctors was sometimes a bit "over our heads," with all of the medical jargon. We had a full schedule, so much so that we had two working lunches. These were to enable all TM members the opportunity to share experiences and information. I know I came away with a renewed spirit, hope and strength to carry on fighting this "thing" we call TM.

I really enjoyed all our time together; it was sad when Sunday came around and we had to say goodbye. It was great meeting all those who were in Seattle in 1999 and also making new friends and putting all of the faces to names from the TMIC.

I stayed on in Baltimore for some sightseeing after the symposium. I had just left to visit Washington DC when the train with hazardous chemicals crashed in the tunnel near the hotel. Thankfully, I was out of Baltimore for the next few days. Before I left Baltimore, I had some fun with a puncture in my wheelchair tire. The security police helped me to get a loner chair for the rest of the day. I got it fixed by one of the maintenance men at the hotel. When I was going downtown the next day, it blew up. A lady walking behind me in the street screamed; she thought someone had been shot! I had to go to a cycle shop and get a new tire and tube fitted. I pushed two blocks on a flat tire. It was hard going and uphill as well. Got it done, made my way back downtown, and by the time I got there, I had a flat again! They had forgotten to put the cap back on the valve. Two ladies came to my rescue and we phoned the shop. The shop came to me this time and had to take the wheel back to the shop. These two ladies stayed with me all the time while I waited for the wheel to get back. We had a great long chat and exchanged addresses. So, now I have someone to go visit, if the next symposium is in Florida!

Washington was a great experience. I had quite a few adventures there. I decided to take a tour of the capital the next day. All was duly arranged through the hotel, and I was assured that the bus was accessible. The coach driver of the bus that I was booked on looked at me and said, "I can take your wheelchair, but you will have to walk up the steps into the coach." So, I said to him, "If I could walk up those stairs, I would not use a wheelchair." He just said, "well that's the way it is. I can take your wheelchair, I do it all the time. I can take two or three." I guess this is one point where we wheelchair users are not "cost effective;" more space for people paying for seats, when they don't have to provide space for wheelchair users.

Well, after asking other drivers where I could get other transport, which was wheelchair friendly, I was pointed in the right direction. This office didn't open for another three hours. So, here I was at 6 am, a time you generally would not find me out on the streets wandering around. But all ended well. I was pointed in the direction of the White House Centre where a security guard told me that I would not need a pass to go into the White House. Furthermore, I could go right to the front of the queue and would be escorted in before all of the people waiting!

So, I decided to go there until the tour operators opened. It was quite funny as I found myself being wheeled around by an unknown male who was very tall. I could not see his face when I turned around. I only got to see what he looked like when I had my photos developed. He had two friends with him. They just jumped on my bandwagon when they heard the guide from the White House ask me how many were in my party. They were quick to join me so that they could get in earlier.

The next part of my adventure was during the Washington DC bus tour. The tour bus was not accessible. When they brought an accessible bus, I was the only one on it. I had my own personal guided tour by two very nice gentlemen. I guess we saw about everything. We stopped off at the Lincoln memorial. We went to President Kennedy's grave, which meant a great deal to me, as my father was also John Fitzgerald, and from Wexford in Ireland, where the Kennedy's ancestors came from. I was told about the man-made lake and all of the cherry blossom trees, which come out in the spring; it must be really beautiful to see. It was all a lovely experience and I truly enjoyed it.

Marty, my personal guide, escorted me to the train station to show me how I could get back to my hotel without using a taxi. I used the underground train and then a bus, and all accessible. I forgot to mention that I took the light rail from Baltimore to the main station and then from the Maryland rail to Washington. Again, all was accessible. I took many photos of all this to show people in Ireland how our transport system could be developed to become wheelchair friendly. To round off my great day, I went for a meal and a Bailey's' at an Irish Pub, which was right next door to the hotel that I was staying in. And even better, it had an adjoining door from the inside of the hotel!

I went to a place called Glen Burnie and found a fabric shop for quilting materials! I even dashed out the morning I was leaving to buy some more material as I had found that I still had more room in my suitcase after all my packing was done. Material is so much less expensive in the states than here in Ireland; it's about a third of the price.

To all my TM friends and family, my heartfelt condolences on the most horrifying catastrophe which fell on New York and Washington and Pennsylvania. How anyone could do that to fellow human beings, I will never understand. God Bless and give strength to all who have lost loved ones; also to the rescue workers who have such a terrible task. We did have a National Day of Mourning and Solidarity on the 13th of September; all shops and businesses were closed and a three minutes of silence was held that day. At our quilting group last Tuesday, I requested a minute of silence for the victims and loved ones. We are all thinking about the events of September in America and are praying for everyone.

God Bless,
Ann Moran in Ireland
annmoran[AT SIGN]gofree.indigo.ie