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From:
Date: 19 Oct 2011
Time: 11:13:31 -0500
Remote Name: 76.214.57.74
Hi Connie, Yes, some 20 years ago I did start a self help group in Illinois across the Mississippi from St Louis. I recall your valuable help in getting this started. At the time I was working for a contractual agency in Illinois and lived in Ilinois. My boss who owned the agency had an in as far as helping us get this started and finding us a place to meet at a local hospital. It was very successful for a short time, but when I quit that job and began a job in Missouri I had to drop the SSH group. It was a long commute, I could not handle both commitments at the same time. Also, the relationshiop with my old boss fell apart. So the group also fell apart when I left. I cannot recall what we did to get such a good response and wish I could recall as I am loosly involved in a NSA chapter in ST Louis but cannot remember how, 20 years ago, we as an upatart group attracted and kept so many members, but I do know that our meetings were much more focused on a particular topic with each meeting. Of course, deviating from that topic usually happened but that was OK, but the focused topic led to more meaningful discourse. I found doing this was very fullfilling and I found it rewarding. Not sure if I want to become that heavily involved again. Hmm, something to think about. It is so great to hear from you again. I think about you occassionally and wonder what advice you gave me that helped so much in getting that SSH group going. I had already had SD when I was involved with this group but I did not talk about it. At that time having SD may have been suggested to me by my doctors and/or therapists but I was not ready to believe it. That whole thing is very complicated in my mind and is hard to separate it all out. I did not talk about the SD or having a voice disorder for the above reason and that throwing in another issue would have only have complicated it for me and maybe for the other members. Again I think of you often and of the help that you gave. Thank you again, some 20 years after the fact. Irene