She sat quietly in the back of the room. She was enthused about what she had never seen before and was in front of her eyes now. The well-lighted room was missing only one thing. It had no window to the ocean. She could imagine the blue sky outside with some cotton-like clouds, perhaps a jet booming away. If she closed her eyes she could hear the waves.
But she was sitting right there for the longest time. The group of about 30 people had arrived in two waves, the larger one about 30 minutes into the meeting. The had been listening to this guy in white gown showe good humor and give interesting information about what they were about to do for the first time ever.
One person came in and left inmediately noticing she was in the wrong meeting. She hesitated to leave, though perhaps impressed by the speaker or maybe by the quiet, attentive audience.
Pura saw Recupero come in, wave her "Hi" and sit in front.
Then, one by one they read different articles of what the speaker called a model Mission Statement of a Patient Council. They had questions about some of the terms in the document but seemed to agree with the main purpose of the document. They were being asked if they had interest in establishing a group of patients that could formally advise the mental health care system! Amazing but not unheard of.
Well...they even nominated an executive committte or board, voted on four candidates. they chose them apparently to satisfaction. No body complained. The original speaker sat down and became part of the audience as the newly-elected President of the Council took over and gave his own pep talk.
The Council members decided to have the second meeting within one month and to include what they called rules of behavior for Council members in the agenda.
Within two hours they had organized another valuable source of information and feedback for caregivers and administrators of the mental health system.
Pura was sorry that Recupero did not get nominated for any position. (In private he told Pura he thought there were very few people from the clinic that he attends. He wished it had been different).
Pura said: "Well.. this is only the first meeting. Watch and see this organization grow".
