78-10-B1
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Wedding
TranscriptI'm going to talk about a wedding and maybe you'll feel better about life in general when you've heard about this one. I'll be right back. On Saturday July 15 in Chicago, Linda Fraschalla walked down the aisle and was married to Peter Saraceno. As they led the wedding party from the church the pace was a little slow, because Pete had to use a walker. Actually the marriage itself was about two years late. Linda and Peter planned to wed in 1976 right after he was released from the Marines then Pete and a buddy crashed an automobile. Pete was critically injured and pronounced dead on arrival at Westlake Hospital, but a doctor felt for a pulse one last time and found a very faint one. Pete was alive, but in a coma. After 12 days in a respirator and with five other life support machines attached to him. The doctors told his mother to pull the plug. She replied that if God had wanted him, he would have taken him in the accident. He would remain in the coma for three and a half months. At three months, he contracted double pneumonia and was given only a few hours to live. Linda works in the admitting office at Presbyterian-St. Luke's Hospital. Every night after work, she visited Pete who never so much has moved an eyelash. Mevertheless Linda was there, decorating his room with a lighted tree for Christmas spending New Year's Eve with him. Sympathetic doctors told her to go out have fun and try to forget him. She refused. Then one day Pete opened his eyes and his eyes began following Linda as she moved around the room. Later a finger moved, then an arm and finally he tried to speak. Linda was the only one who could understand him, even when he made no sound she could read his lips. He spent seven months at Westlake then to the Chicago Rehabilitation Institute and finally home. Linda quit her job and used her savings to buy a 28-foot backyard pool to help him exercise his legs. One day, his mother took him back to Westlake to meet the nurses who'd cared for him during the long months of coma. He stepped off the third floor elevator using a walker and Mrs. Saraceno says there wasn't a dry eye on the floor. When Pete asked Linda's father for permission to marry her, Mr. Fraschalla said, "When you can walk down that aisle she's all yours." Linda has returned to her job but she spent her evenings decorating a garden type apartment in Melrose Park where they're now at home. Pete had wanted to become a Chicago policeman but still has trouble with his left arm. Linda says he can do some kind of desk work. Pete says, "The doctors call me 'The Miracle Boy' and I guess they're right. I'm lucky to be alive and I'm lucky to have Linda." Yes he is. When the doctors told Linda that he would never make it, she told them, "I love him." and she refused to believe them. She said, "I wanted to help him, so I stayed at his side as much as I could." Pete says, "She sure taught me about love." I think she taught all of us something. Pete, congratulations, and to you and Linda, a lifetime of love and happiness. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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