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Dear Theresa
Thank you very much for your good wishes for our holiday trip – you are very kind. There is no need to thank us for being friends to Fr Pat. He has been a good friend to us for many years …………….
We also received your fax. I have some ideas on making a simple case to support Fr Pat's move from Ireland to Australia based on things that we have talked about before:
1. Fr Pat needs more than nursing care – he needs mental stimulation especially from people that he feels relaxed and secure with. As Alex Wong has said in his letter, this psychological support is vital to keeping Fr Pat's general condition up.
2. Fr Pat reacts best and is more relaxed, happy and forthcoming with people who are familiar with his life in Hong Kong. Neither his family members nor the Salesians can give Fr Pat the mental stimulation and sense of security that he needs.
3. In Ireland only the two of us are "friends" to Fr Pat. We seem to be the only people who care enough to be able to devote time to Fr Pat: that is, not just a ½ hour visit, but 3 or 4 hours a time, to check his room, flowers, fruits, chocolates etc, to check his correspondence to friend, ask if he needs anything or is unhappy about anything – to take him out for a meal, for a drive, to the supermarket etc.
4. To make a case to show how much better life would be for Fr Pat in Australia, the Old Boys should have a full list of all those people in Australia, who are concerned about him and would be available to visit him / take him out on a regular basis.
I'm sure the doctors could elaborate on how good this would be for his health.
We visited Pat today and took him out to lunch, which I think he enjoyed. We weighed him and he was 156 lb. When we returned to the nursing home, Fr Foster turned up, so we did not really get Fr Pat's reaction when we said we would not see him for a month. ........ You may be interested to know that Johnny Foster said that he could be visiting Hong Kong at Easter!
A large flower arrangement and a basket of fruit arrived today for Fr Pat from Elsie Leung and Selina Ma. We checked Father's address book for their names so that we might acknowledge their gift and good wishes but could not find them. Perhaps they have different married names?
The flowers you ordered / Chris ordered a large arrangement which is to be delivered tomorrow, cost Pound 50! Like everywhere else, in Ireland they push up the prices for Valentine Day!!! Hope they'll be nice. We told the sister and staff to make sure to water the flowers.
Happy St Valentine's Day!
Love
Chris & Bosco Keown
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