Henry Shelton is Home and Organizing!

Here's a letter from Carol Shelton, that Richard Walton shared (via email):

1/30/2010

Dear Friends and family,

I thought I d try to get a message to friends and family who have extended
themselves during Henry s recent illness through cards, notes, visits and
so many other expressions of your concern for Henry and our family.

I thought I would bring everyone up to date regarding where we are, a
little over a month since Henry sustained the stroke on December 28th.
The acute hospitalization was short and by January 1, Henry was at the
Kent Hospital Rehab unit. That was an excellent experience. We were
impressed by the great teamwork by each of the therapists (Physical
therapy, Occupational therapy and Speech therapy) as well as by the Rehab
doctor and nurses. In no time they had Henry walking the corridors with
a quad cane and participating in each of the therapies. He made excellent
progress and returned home this past Tuesday (the 26th). He will be
followed by a Home Care team for several weeks. We have already had both
the PT and OT working with us this week.

It is so good to be home, having family meals together and developing a
more normal rhythm about life and making adjustments based on Henry s
current condition. Yesterday, several of the Wiley Center folks were here
for a meeting to plan some of the actions in the coming weeks. This
week, for example there will be a demonstration from 4 to 6 PM on
Thursday, February 4th at Fountain and Dorrance Sts. in Providence to make
clear to the PUC that they should say NO to National Grid s request for
an increase in its rates! Please try to come.

Henry is walking with a little assistance. His muscles are strong, but his
balance is off, so we have to be careful about falls. The PT who was here
yesterday and who will be working with him is confident that he will
improve as the weeks go on. So we are pretty confident about all of this.
The OT will work on improving his right arm, which was also affected by
the stroke. His speech is greatly improved, though he has some word
retrieval issues. (Don t we all!) But I d say that has improved a lot.

I have asked for LOA s from many of my Board responsibilities during this
time as I want to be able to help in everyway I can. Since we have left
the hospital we have enjoyed watching several documentaries including the
one about Howard Zinn who died this week. What a great man! It felt
really good to honor him by watching the video. If you haven t done so,
read today s (1/30) editorial about Zinn in the NYTimes written by Bob
Herbert. Last night we saw the Dietrich Bonhoeffer video about his life.


So we hope that this respite in both of our lives is temporary, but a time
when we can grow together and learn both to accept help and to ask for
help when necessary. So many of you have asked what you can do. I d say,
keep in touch, come and visit, don t forget to let us know what is going
on. We may not be out on the picket lines for now, but we don t want to
miss a beat!

With love and gratitude, Henry and Carol

The George Wiley Center website now has information about the recent action at the State House on January 4th, including New Year's Resolutions for Governor Carcieri.