Reality

By MARK LONG

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. (AP) - Extra police blocked the road in front of the hospice where the severely brain-damaged Terri Schiavo lay dying Monday, and a spokesman for her parents said they are "dealing with reality" about their daughter's fate.

At least a dozen officers were assigned to the site a day after five supporters of her parents were arrested as protesters heckled police and boisterously chanted "Give Terri water." A next-door elementary school was closed for the week so students could avoid the throng...

"Everyone is willing to write this woman's obituary except one person. And that's Terri Schiavo herself," said Paul O'Donnell, a Roman Catholic Franciscan monk and a spokesman for her parents.

Some of the protestors, led by family spokesmen Patrick Mahoney, flew to Washington Monday to confront lawmakers and demonstrate in front of the White House gates, imploring leaders to step in and order Schiavo's feeding tube reconnected.

President Bush's aides have said they ran out of legal options to help the woman. Gov. Bush said Monday that while it "made sense" to have federal courts review the case, he had to respect their decisions last week not to order the tube reinserted.

"I have not seen any means by which the executive branch can get involved. My legal counsel has talked to the Schindler family and their lawyer over the weekend," Bush said. "My heart is broken about this."

Neither Schiavo's parents nor her husband offered new, specific details on her condition, but one of the two priests who visited her hospital room Easter Sunday said the brain-damaged woman's "death is imminent."

O'Donnell said Schiavo smiled, raised her hands and made guttural sounds late Sunday while being visited by her father and a friend, who was talking about how she liked to go out dancing.

"They are dealing with reality," O'Donnell said of the Schindlers in an interview on NBC's "Today.""They know their daughter is dying. They know what is about to happen."

...Schiavo's mother did not visit her daughter on Easter, emotions keeping her from the hospice for the first time since Terri's feeding tube was removed 10 days ago, O'Donnell said.

"If she goes in there again, we might have to take her to the hospital," O'Donnell said.

But the woman's parents claimed one Easter victory: Schiavo's husband, Michael, allowed her to receive communion wine.

As her brother, sister and brother-in-law watched, the Rev. Thaddeus Malanowski held Terri's right hand as he and the hospice priest, the Rev. Joseph Braun, placed the droplet on her tongue. Malanowski also anointed her with holy oil, offered a blessing and absolved her of sin.

"She received the blood of Christ," said Malanowski, adding he could not give her a fleck of communion bread because her tongue was too dry.
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"We can discover this meaning in life in three different ways: (1) by doing a deed; (2) by experiencing a value; and (3) by suffering."

--Victor Frankl