I met Patty and the Phommanyvong family just more than a year ago. At that time Patty was still living at a long-term residential facility (aka nursing home). Notwithstanding Patty’s significant care needs, it didn’t seem to make sense for her to be in a nursing home for almost two years, especially when her parents, Say Taylor and Vilay Phommanyvong, very much wanted their daughter to be home. That marked the beginning of my relationship with Patty and her family.
I watched as Patty’s father Say managed his own business (seven days a week, 12-plus hour days), moved his family to a first-floor apartment to accommodate Patty’s needs, negotiated with health care, insurance, legal, and social service agencies about the daily care and needs of his daughter, traveled more than 30 miles several times a week to visit his daughter at the nursing home in Azusa, continued raising his youngest daughter, Katty, and still some how had enough left for his his wife, Vilay.
It’s hard to really imagine the enormous pressures shouldered each and every day by Patty’s family, and yet, throughout all the ups and downs, challenges, disappointments, frustrations and negotiations, Say remains determined to provide his daughter Patty with every possible opportunity he can to support and improve her life today and in the years ahead.
As a political refugee from Laos in the wake of the Vietnam war, Say immigrated to America as a young man who never imagined a life away from his homeland. As many first generation immigrants, Say’s life in America has been filled with challenges, hard work and a belief in his dedication to build a life and future for his family here in California.
It has been a great personal experience to witness Say’s love for his family and daughter Patty despite what must often seem like insurmountable odds. For Say Taylor there is nothing he won’t do for Patty.
— MS
Having awakened from a seven-month coma brought on by two massive strokes in 1966, Julia Tavalaro found herself, at the age of 33, paralyzed and alone in an unfamiliar hospital. Eventually, she was able to reconstruct the moments preceding her first stroke at her home on Long Island, suffering from a terrible headache and trying to soothe her hungry infant. Tavalaro’s enormous capacity to battle devastating misfortune is on display in her memoir, ”Look Up for Yes,” written with the poet Richard Tayson. But her gifts extend beyond a fierce will for self-recognition, for she is also endowed with extraordinary powers of memory and description that enable her to convey her experiences vividly.