Therapist retires after 46 years of helping children

Oct. 28—Physical therapist Pat Pack recalls seeing great achievements coming "in small packages."

"Learning to lift a head when they're helped sitting, learning to sit on the floor, which we take for granted that babies are just going to develop those things," Pack said. "Learning to roll over."

Pack has helped countless children reach such achievements — and beyond — through 46 years at Kelly B. Todd Cerebral Palsy and Neuro-Muscular Center.

The center will have a retirement party at 5 p.m. Thursday.

Executive Director Sharon Riggs said Pack has been a caring, compassionate presence since the center began in 1975 at Bethany Presbyterian Church.

"From observing Pat with the families who attended, she was compassionate and caring about the families and made sure they were able to receive resources for their child," Riggs said. "She was not only just invested in the child, but also the child's family and making sure the child was getting the best care available."

Pack said said she loves the interaction with babies, children and teens.

She said she loved being able to "engage with so many amazing children and their families, and in many cases, watch the children grow, achieve things."

"I had, until the time I stepped out of the center, a delightful little guy who is so limited in his physical ability. And yet, number one, he is so happy, and his smile is forever almost," Pack said. "He had just gone through quite a significant orthopedic surgery. When I left the center, he was doing a much better job when, placed in a position where his elbows are under his shoulders, he could lift his head and look and laugh at whatever his mom was doing. That was significant progress for him."

Pack said she also has seen young ones learn to use a walker "and then walk without a walker."

She said she also loved seeing the parents' excitement.

Prayer has played a main role throughout Pack's time at the center.

"I was there at its beginning and prayed that God would continually guide me in making decisions how I worked with the kiddos," she said. "Those times when I became a little disheartened or low in spirit, I was able to return through prayer to that original drive God gave me."

That "original drive" came from a desire to honor the Lord in whatever she does, Pack said.

She traces her physical therapy calling to when a Connors State College counselor helped her choose a major.

"She had a brochure of a physical therapist working in a pool with a child and I said, 'I'd like to do that all day,'" she said. "And that's what got me thinking about PT."

Pack said she had been thinking and praying about retirement for several years.

"I went to part-time a couple of years ago," she said. "I realized with our case load and with me turning 72, I decided it must be time. So we started looking at the ideal timing of that to make the least difficulty for the staff if I left."

She said she has lots of reading and Bible study to catch up on. She said she is praying about whether to renew her physical therapist license. She said she had been on trips to Nicaragua and Honduras to do physical therapy with the villagers; she desires to return.

"I have loved being free to be able to help friends out in different ways," she said.