All Together We Can

Patty Cassidy, or Patty the conqueror as she has been come to have been known by, has been battling breast cancer. On Thanksgiving, I got a call from Caroline Ramsey Musselwhite telling me that our friend Patty had passed away early that morning. I first met Patty at Closing the Gap and then she later was my professor in AAC at the Simmons assistive technology masters program. I remember her passion for the individuals she taught to communicate. When she showed her videos of her students, I remember seeing someone who simply loved and believed in her students. She has been a beautiful model to me. One of the things that she made a point to teach me personally was the importance of modeling language. Not so ironically, I have been engaged in an in-depth literature review of the practice of modeling in AAC. As I re-work that study into a submission to a publication, I will do it in memory of our friend Patty. While I only knew Patty for the last few years, she was one of the friends I have met in the AAC world who I look up to the most. Maybe it was because she was so down to earth or maybe it was because she was so nice to me, or maybe it was that we looked at AAC so similarly, whatever the reason, we were friends and I will miss her. It made me smile when I heard about the true extent of the support she has had. One can only wish for friends and family like that in life. Special prayers go out to her three children.

This image is from a book put together for Patty in the last year. You can read inspirational stories about Patty and about funeral arrangements here: http://cassidynews.blogspot.com

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post