Patrick is an amazing man. One of the things I love most about him is his compassion.

There was a story published in a Chicago paper about seven years ago about a little girl who had been attacked in her apartment complex. She was a pre-teen (can't remember exactly,9-12 years old) African-American girl living in a tough neighborhood. She had been sexually assaulted, beaten, and left for dead. The details of the attack were in the paper, and they were beyond comprehension. They appeared in a certain journalist's commentary, not in the "news" sections.

Patrick probably bought the paper because he is a Chicago sports fan- we do not have a subscription to it- and his team had probably done something worthy of the purchase. He came across the article by chance, and he wept as he read it.

I have a hard time listening/reading such difficult topics. To this day, I have not seen Schindler's List even though I know I should- I just keep telling myself I will see it when I can handle it. So far, I haven't felt ready.

I saw him reading this, crying. And I knew when he finished he would corner me into reading it as well so I didn't even ask about it- I kind of tried to keep a low profile hoping he wouldn't subject me to it. It didn't work, he found my hiding place and told me to read it.

I begged him not to ask me to read it- I told him if it had this effect on him, I didn't want to be an emotional mess, too. He didn't budge. He looked at me and said, This little girl has been through hell. She suffered terribly and didn't even make the news section, let alone the front page. She deserves to have her story told and heard. I took the paper and began to read. I too, cried as I read to be such a horrific tale. She had survived the ordeal, but had brain damage among other things from the attack.

Patrick made it a mission to try to tell as many people as he could about the story. Not everyone is receptive to that kind of story- it's very heavy on the heart. He didn't care how OTHERS felt about it- all he could think of was how this girl must have felt, what she had survived; she DESERVED to have people know what she had lived through and he would not let her be forgotten. He questioned if this was the same press that the story would have recieved if it had been a white child. He followed the story in the follow-up articles the journalist wrote.

He cut that article out of the paper. He carried it in his work bag and re-read it from time to time. I came across it when I cleaned out the bag after his stroke. I couldn't bring myself to re-read it. I put it back in the bag, back in it's home.

I think about that girl from time to time- wondering how her life has turned out. Hoping it is not as bleak as was predicited. I now know how wrong doctors can be, so I hope for the best for her. I realize, compairing Patrick's stroke and subsiquent challenges to the challenges faced by this little girl, how good we got it. I think I will go get that article and re-read it. She deserves it- and I think I am ready.

Kristen