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PATRICIA DEAN
The sculpture of Patricia Dean, as shown here, is a
work in progress…not done yet. Which is okay because
Dean herself—that’s what everyone calls her—
Dean herself is a bit of a work in progress. It is still not
entirely clear—even though she is in her forties and a
partner in a leading Denver law firm—just how she is
gong to turn out. She is blazingly smart, funny, beautiful
and more than a little wild. She could still do any
damn thing, like a kid. Except that it is already clear
that she has a character of steel. That won’t change.
And she walks—for all her considerable beauty—like
a clumsy child. That won’t change either.
Because 20 years ago, she fell off a roof (“typical
Dean,” one is tempted to say) and broke her neck, way
up high, where it’s really scary. She is an “incomplete”
quadriplegic at the C2 level. If she were “complete”,
she would be paralyzed from the neck down and need
a respirator to breath. Like Christopher Reeve.
As it is she can walk but many of her neuro systems
are out of whack, so she looks like someone from.
Monty Python’s The Bureau of Silly Walks. And she
has no “proprioception”—no sense of where she is
in space. So she is forever bumping into things. She
has no equilibrium, either, so she needs to consciously
line herself up with verticals. Like door jams and telephone
poles. There’s a good deal of lurching about…
some crashing.
Which is fine. Because it took an agonizing year of
extremely determined rehab at Craig Hospital to
get this far. I know the background and, believe me,
it is a triumph. And she views it precisely that way.
Well, not quite: she views it as mildly hilarious and
a triumph. Much of the work was done by Dean, of
course. And much of it by her closest friend—and
our mutual physical therapist—Conny McClintock.
Conny, another of the funniest women in the West,
also thinks Dean is hilarious and kids her all the time.
Kids her hard. Humor is a little rough in rehab circles
in the West. And no one minds it a bit. If you’re in
Denver some time and want to have one of the nights
of your life, go drinking with Conny and Dean. But
get a limo.
As I say, it is not 100% clear what Dean will do when
she grows up, but it is clear that she will be great at
it. Because of those brains and that character I mentioned.
She is already a terrific lawyer, serves on a
bunch of Boards (including the Board of Craig Hospital),
and is a community leader. And she is a lovely,
lovely friend. With a slightly silly walk.
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