For Terri . . .may angels seen and unseen continue to guard, protect, and strengthen you.
Posted on 11/13/2003 4:00:26 AM PST by amdgmary
A thousand words about the Terri Schiavo you never knew
Careless Whisper was her favorite song. She rode horses. She saved birthday cards. She didn't go to prom.
By KELLEY BENHAM, Times Staff Writer
Published November 13, 2003
She was named Theresa Marie, after Saint Theresa of Avila, but they called her that only when they were mad, which was almost never.
She drew pictures of dogs and horses, Bambi and Thumper, and her Labrador puppy, Bucky.
She grew up in a four-bedroom colonial on a half acre in the suburbs of northeast Philadelphia.
Overweight most of her life, she would cry when she had to buy school clothes.
She loved to peel skin after a sunburn.
She could keep a secret.
Her eyes are brown.
She attended Our Lady of Good Counsel school, where short, stout Sister Idalea knew the best way to pull a kid's hair to make it hurt.
She loved a boy named V.J. Mandez, but he did not love her back.
She learned to drive in a Ford Country Squire station wagon.
She got cold easily. She kept a blanket on the bed even in summer.
She once ran into the house crying because she had run over a rabbit. No one could console her. Her father went outside, came back, and said she was mistaken, there was no dead rabbit in the road. When she finally calmed down and left the room, her dad said, "Man, she nailed it."
She drank nearly a gallon of iced tea a day.
She read Danielle Steele novels. In their defense, she would say, "They are not Harlequins."
She liked to drive her T-top Trans Am past construction sites. She liked blonds.
She slept with her back to the window, so if she was murdered in the night she would not see it coming.
She weighed 200 pounds when she graduated from Archbishop Wood High School.
On her first real date, with a guy named Michael Schiavo, her brother and his friend stood on the front lawn and cheered.
She met Michael her second semester at Bucks County Community College. He was a year older, a foot taller and blond. He was the first guy who ever noticed her.
She has her mother's bushy eyebrows.
At Christmas, she would sneak around the house trying to find where the presents were hidden. Her father set up a train around the tree.
They said grace before dinner and had roast beef on Sundays.
She wrote a letter to John Denver asking him to sing at her wedding. He never wrote back.
She was not a great cook. She made a banana cake with green bananas and laughed when everyone told her how horrible it was.
She clerked at Prudential Insurance in Pennsylvania and in Florida, but wanted a job with animals.
She always made someone else kill the roaches.
Michael proposed after five months of dating. Her parents thought they were too young.
She was married Nov. 10, 1984, at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in front of about 250 guests. It was the wedding she had always wanted, except that she refused to wait for warmer weather so she could have a horse and carriage. The tuxedos were gray.
She collected Precious Moments figurines.
When her Christmas tree was crooked, she called her dad for help. He told her to go buy a tree straightener. She called all over looking for one.
Before college she lost more than 50 pounds on a NutriSystem diet.
When she was about 7, her brother Bobby threw a brick at her head and made her cry.
Bobby locked her in a suitcase once and couldn't get her out. He ran for their mom while the suitcase jumped up and down, screaming.
She drove 30 minutes out of her way five days a week to visit her grandmother in a nursing home.
Her friends teased her that at the beach she was always the one the sea gull pooped on. "Don't lie next to me," they would say.
She worked at a dry cleaner in high school.
The movie Jaws made her cry. She was terrified of the ocean for the rest of her life.
Her gerbils were always getting loose and winding up in the air conditioning unit in the basement.
She was born Dec. 3, 1963, the first child of Robert and Mary Schindler. Robert was a salesman, mostly. Mary stayed home with Terri, and then Bobby and Suzanne.
On Saturdays, she went to Mass with her mother.
She was not strong and would not work out.
She bought her brother Bobby his first Bruce Springsteen record, Darkness on the Edge of Town, in 1978. He's been a fanatic ever since.
She always wanted to be a veterinarian and wrote TV zookeeper Joan Embry for advice. Embry said to finish college.
An average student, she dropped out of junior college.
She saw doctors for a benign lump in her breast, a wart on her toe and dizzy spells.
As a child she would spend hours in her room arranging her stuffed animals.
She loved Wham!
When Bucky the Labrador collapsed, she performed mouth-to-nose resuscitation on him. He died in her arms.
She and Michael lived in her parents' basement in Pennsylvania, then in a condo her parents owned in Florida. They paid rent, $400 a month, when they could.
She saw An Officer and a Gentleman four times in one day.
She quit using birth control in 1989 but did not get pregnant.
She is allergic to Benadryl.
She had an intolerance to salad and dairy products.
The night before her wedding, her father sat on the floor of her bedroom and watched her sleep. He was crying. She knew he was there, but never told him.
She loved the TV show Starsky and Hutch so much that she and her friend Sue Pickwell wrote hundreds of letters to Paul Michael Glaser. He, or his people, eventually wrote back.
At 26, she was 5 feet 4 and weighed 110 pounds. When she took off her shirt at night, Michael could see her bones.
She dyed her hair blond and bought a bikini.
She went to clubs with her brother because Michael worked nights. When guys hit on her, she would giggle, grab her brother and say, "I'm here with my boyfriend."
She had neat handwriting.
She had a good tan.
When she rode on the back of Bobby's motorcycle, she held on so tight she left marks on his skin.
Early on Feb. 25, 1990, she collapsed on the floor in the hallway outside her bedroom, gasping.
- Information for this story came from interviews with Terri Schiavo's brother, Bob Schindler Jr., and her childhood friend Diane Meyer, and from court transcripts, Newsday and the Associated Press.
How very sweet.
Creator God, sustain each one who tirelessly brings Terri's ordeal before the public .. separate the truth from the lies, that we would know that we are looking at premeditated murder. For the sake of all life that is precious, Lord, turn back this evil and restore this dear child to her rightful place within the family of man.
May it be thus, dear Jesus, may it be thus ... Amen
Help us keep up the basic responsibilities You have given us to family and others as we commit ourselves to Terri. May we each put ourselves in Your loving arms, closer than ever to You in this latest battle against evil. We would not be anywhere else but close to You, walking in Your light. We pray in Jesus' Name -- Amen.
Where are Terri's area friends?
Before the court settlement in '92, before the 'falling out' of Michael Schiavo and Terri's father -- who sat in her room and cried the night before her wedding -- she underwent therapy in the area, was out and about in her wheelchair, incl. trip to local mall beauty salon. Where are those who knew her then, where are the workers who cared for her? Where is the photographer who took that beautiful photo of Terri & Michael in 11/90, with him looking at her as if she is indeed "there"? You know it did not take 4 hrs to get that photo!
Why did so many, including the elderly and those with disabled hangtangs, drive by indifferently that Sunday morning when I stood out there with a sign for her? She is right in your backyard! Why don't you care about her life? It is because you've accepted the lies her husband, who unbelievably has been retained all these years as her guardian & spokesperson for 'what she wants'.
I pray that you will wake up, speak up for Terri. It's hard for us to do it as a distance, but Lord knows we're trying to be heard with those there who DO understand the extent of the evil being done to her.
Terri is NOT in a coma, she is NOT in PVS. Her parents do not mind taking care of her -- whether she 'gets better' or not. Michael Schiavo has his own life to get on with -- let him go on with it, leave Terri to her family.
I hope the St. Pete Times follows up with a series of investigative reports. May there be people there willing to put themselves on the line for Terri, for the truth, against the odds.
For Terri . . .may angels seen and unseen continue to guard, protect, and strengthen you.
[LOL! btw, I read elsewhere that her brother Bobby moved that rabbit so she wouldn't know about it.]
When Bucky the Labrador collapsed, she performed mouth-to-nose resuscitation on him. He died in her arms.
She drove 30 minutes out of her way five days a week to visit her grandmother in a nursing home.
Thanks again for a beautiful article, Kelley Benham. I hope the SPTimes runs that photo again as well -- compare it to the one above. NOTHING has changed except Michael's willingness to keep her alive.
All these years without rehab, Terri is still there. God bless her, and us to do all we can for her.
Why the change of heart, Michael?
Why did CNN show video of you taking Terri out, pointing things out to her outside?
Why did you take her out then, but now -- won't even allow her the simplest, most basic therapy or rehabilitation?
Terri is the same now as she was then. Michael is the one who has changed.
Let Terri get on with her life, Michael -- YOU get on with yours, leave her alone.
We know Terri gets out of bed for basic care, bath -- does she have a chair to get out in like she used to? We've read that at some point (when?) her wheelchair broke; Michael did not replace it even though her parents offered to get one.
It's been suggested that a geri (geriatric) chair is preferable to a wheelchair for Terri at this point -- more comfortable, padded, can recline . . . just needs a bit of chrome, afterburners? . . .
Terri's 40th birthday is Dec 3.
Ms. Terri Schindler Schiavo
Woodside Hospice
6774 102nd Avenue N
Pinellas Park, Florida 33780
------------
Alternate address or if you'd like to include a check:
The Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation
4615 Gulf Blvd -- #104/103
St Petersburg Beach, FL 33706
I am so disolved into emotion from reading this dear and sensitive and incredible article about Terri.
I am forwarding it to Larry.King.Live3@turner.com and am praying along with all here.
We must flood Larry's email today. Perhaps Larry will share with our nation the very realness and heart of this woman's life.
May God Bless the author of this article, and may the truth about Terri, the full truth, be laid upon those who hold the power to protect and free this beautiful life into the arms of her family.
I am going to fast this evening, in prayer, that the Schindler family and their attorney are surrounded and strengthed and fully able to present the truth about Terri and her will to live tomorrow on Larry King.
God Bless our efforts to help this young lady and her family. God Bless Jeb Bush and the attorney's working to defend Terri's Law, God bless the guardian ad litem with the fullness of truth and compassion, and God bless the Schindler's and Terri with a mighty sword of strength and truth. May the words the Schindler's and those who support them carry our Father's complete and awesome blessings.
Seriously, I don't know -- a number of us had talked about this recently. I don't know if there were further conversations since then; I lost my battle to skim through every post on those threads in last several days! So anyone who knows anything more -- feel free to fill us in here or in freemail. We do need to get it together; her birthday is in 3 weeks.
I figured the first thing is to establish that Terri needs a chair, and what kind is best for her. I've not heard back about that; does anyone here know?
Let's see who is still interested and able to work on this, whatever it takes. Clearly we need someone local, too.
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