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Reifsnyder clarifies article information

September 24, 2021

A couple of months back, the Cape Gazette published a feature article about me and my life as a survivor of a traumatic brain injury more than 27 years ago. I appreciate the newspaper’s and reporter’s sense that the story was one worth telling, but I would like to clarify and correct a few items of information that were included.

Though I was on my way to earning a degree from University of Delaware, I was six credits short when money ran out so I was never able to graduate.

I have given pottery-making presentations in enrichment classes in local elementary schools, but I have never been employed as a teacher in any public schools.  For the decade prior to the fall resulting in the brain injury that changed my life, I owned and operated Framehouse Art Gallery on Route 9 near Lewes.  The classes I taught in ceramics were there.

One of the presentations I made was at Rehoboth Elementary School in February of 2001. That was more than seven years post-injury.

I am indeed writing my memoirs but have no preference for the title at this time.

It’s very important to me that these corrections and clarifications be noted since, otherwise, my credibility could be called into question.,  I have labored for more than 27 years to prove that my life, post coma, is not over, just different. My thoughts and desires remain accurate and credible, unlike many who have experienced similar life-altering events.

The article did accurately portray my gratitude and appreciation for the positive role art has played and continues to play in my life.  Many victims of traumatic brain injuries do not survive more than five or six years following their injury.

As noted, I have survived way beyond that statistic.  I credit my involvement with, and appreciation of, the arts as potter, photographer and in other media as principal reasons why I’m still actively living my life, though not in the same way I was prior to my injury.

Robin Reifsnyder
Georgetown
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