Paula Wittekind will be, and already is, missed by many!!

Paula was the very first PWP I ever met and that was in 1998. I was still living in Fl at that time, where I was raised and raised my children. I met her daughters and Greg, who had a lawn business back then, and Paula's crazy sleeping and eating habits.

We tried to start a PD support group together in Lakeland, my hometown, but it flopped. Maybe it was because we had secured the Police Dept public conference room for the meeting, I don't know. She and Greg stayed at my place in Lakeland when she had her one and only MDS appointment with Dr. Hauser at USF in Tampa.

I met Paula by way of the Brain Talk forum; you have to be an "oldtimer" to remember that forum. Over those first couple of years, I slept on her sofa more than a few times. We walked the beach and got ice cream cones at her fav spot in town. On one beach occasion, we were walking back to the car through the beach "underbrush" and almost stumbled into a dead 12 foot alligator...no joke...it was itchy to say the least, and fortunately it was dead. I remember that because we had a good laugh over the incident.

On one visit she told me about this guy who wanted to start a grassroots clinical trial advocacy project and did I want to join a planned conference call with him and a woman named Peggy. Sure I said. Little did I know how much work it would be over the next decade.

I remember the night, unbeknownst to Paula, that I stayed up all night long learning the software and constructing the first generation of the PPP website; it was pretty crude back then. She woke the next morning to find me at the computer and asked me, "Did you stay up all night?" I was scolded that morning!!

She introduced me to Peggy (the woman) and Perry (the guy,) and dragged me to my first PAN Forum in 1999 where we were roommates for the next two or three forums.

Too many stories...

Paula was one heck of a character

My sincere condolences to her family.

Carolyn Stephenson