Answers to blunt questions about Gabrielle Giffords
Pia Carusone knew the day would come when the questions about her boss, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, became more indelicate.
After answering some of those questions, Carusone, Giffords’ chief of staff, told me, “We want to give people a clear picture (about Giffords). It’s not in anyone’s interest to have anyone feel misled. But it’s hard because we satisfy one person and one set of questions and tomorrow we’re on to the next. The feeling is like it’s never enough.”
It won’t be. Not from now on. The inquiries will keep coming until the day Giffords decides if she will return to Congress.
Is she ready to do that?
No.
Is she close?
No.
[…]
Does her struggle to communicate mean that she’s not using complete sentences?
“Exactly,” Carusone said. “She is borrowing upon other ways of communicating. Her words are back more and more now, but she’s still using facial expressions as a way to express. Pointing. Gesturing. Add it all together and she’s able to express the basics of what she wants or needs. But when it comes to a bigger and more complex thought that requires words, that’s where she’s had the trouble.”
[…]
I hope she can return to her job in time to be reelected, but it’s not clear whether that will happen.
