Dear Listees and Fellow PTG Members, I apologize for the off-topic nature of this message, and will try to be brief. Many of you have taken the time to express your good wishes toward me either through the lists or with e-mails or cards, and I feel it necessary to communicate back to you. First, a bit of history. On the afternoon of April 27th, I went for a ride on my motorcycle. I am an experienced motorcyclist, fully aware of the risk I took every time I got on my Honda Shadow 1100. To that end, I always wore a heavy leather jacket, gloves, boots, and an expensive full-face helmet. The area where I live (Southwest Oregon) contains hundreds of miles of wonderful scenery on two-lane roads that seem to have been made for motorcyclists' enjoyment. It was on one of these roads when, as I came around a corner, I was struck head-on by a Toyota coming around the corner in my lane. I have managed to piece together what I think is a fairly accurate version of the events that followed, and they form what I think is a remarkable sequence of events that saved my life. The wrong-way driver who hit me fled the scene, leaving his 15-year- old passenger holding a belt around my severed left leg. Within a few minutes a local resident arrived to assist. This man happened to be a physician's assistant, and together he and the boy prevented me from bleeding to death until first responders arrived. I was taken to a local hospital and then flown to Oregon Health and Sciences University in Portland, where over the next several days I was in surgery to repair a broken pelvis, shattered right arm, and my leg. Thanks to my expensive helmet and leather, I suffered no brain, spinal or internal injuries. After about a week in ICU, I was moved to a transitional room. It was here that I became coherent enough to understand what had happened. It was also here that I began to find out about Ed Sutton's updates and your overwhelmingly kind reactions to my situation. In the couple of days before I left OHSU, someone brought my laptop computer to me, and I was able to read your posts myself. You have no idea of the effect that your messages and pledges of financial support have had on my spirit and desire to face the challenges now ahead of me. I thank you all. I am now in a rehab facility in Eugene, and I have begun moving forward in the direction of a different life. My doctors and therapists say that there is no reason why I should not be able to live an independent life and do everything I did before, with a few exceptions. It will be a long journey. I don't expect to be tuning pianos again until next winter at the earliest. I am not yet able to operate a keyboard (this message has been typed by my Ghost Typist), so please forgive the short responses to your e- mails. Rest assured you will all be in my thoughts. Again, I thank you for the cards, e-mails, and pledges of financial support. You people are amazing! John Granholm RPT -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090518/1f350d63/attachment-0001.htm>
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC