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Dear Theresa
Thank you for your card, letter and fax. Since we returned from England we visited Fr. Pat on Thursday last week and on Sunday, when you telephoned.
On the first visit he was very stooped and tired but quite relaxed and we were able to communicate sensibly for short periods before his mind would wander off to Hong Kong, St Louis etc. He was able to tell me that his brother, Micky, was "here", that Fr McKenna has visited him and that you had sent him flowers. (Your parcel also arrived while I was there.) Although he said some things that made no sense, I thought that generally he had not deteriorated during the two weeks we were in England.
Sunday was totally different. As you heard on tbe telephone he was very agitated about some imagined problem that his brother, Micky, had difficulty getting a rail ticket from St Joseph station to St Louis. No matter what we said we could not calm him down or divert his attention from this problem. His hands were shaking badly and he was very restless. The sister said that he was fine on Sunday morning and there was no way of knowing how the problem arose.
I visited Fr McKenna on Monday. He said that when he visited Fr Pat he found him quite coherent and much better than he remembered him from Hong Kong, when he was having serious hallucinations.
I feel that, even if Fr McKenna had visited Fr Pat on one of his bad days, he would have triggered off a very positive reaction, because Fr McKenna was his dearest and best friend in the Hong Kong Salesians. As I said before Fr Pat reacts best to people with connections to St Louis and Hong Kong.
Unfortunately Fr McKenna is staying with his family several hours drive from Dublin, he is busy and he does not drive himself, so will probably only see Fr Pat one more time during his say in Ireland.
Speaking with Fr McKenna, he agreed with me that neither the Irish Salesians nor Fr Pat's family are close enough to him or familiar enough with the person to stimulate him mentally or to understand most of the Hong Kong orientation of his mind.
Generally Fr Pat has deteriorated since you were here. Even on his good days his mind is wandering and is continually centered on St Louis and Hong Kong. But then you were able to give him so much attention and personal monitoring of his drugs and his reaction to them as well as stimulating his mind. We feel very inadequate to cope with the deterioration of a person that we love.
As you know the nursing home is a very good one and they will continue to cater for Fr Pat's physical needs but we are very concerned about the deterioration of his mental condition.
I'm sorry if I sound pessimistic. We hope that you are keeping well and we will keep you informed of any developments.
Sincerely,
Bosco Keown
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