Ailing Trustee Pagelow Keeps Mind on Work
Her heart may be weakening, but it’s in the right place--the Capistrano Unified School District boardroom.
Trustee Mildred Daley Pagelow, who suffered a massive heart attack Oct. 13, rarely misses the district’s bimonthly board meetings.
So from her hospital bed Monday, the 71-year-old sociology professor beckoned school officials to put her on speaker phone for the board meeting.
Her doctors ultimately advised her against the move, but that didn’t stop her from calling in a message that was read at the meeting.
“I am a tough old bird--it’s not time to turn in the chips,” Pagelow said in the message, read by Supt. James A. Fleming. “As of this afternoon I am totally off the critical list. I’m a tough broad. I told them to take back the grapes when they brought me dinner. I want chocolate.”
Pagelow, first elected to the board in 1992, is expected to leave Kaiser Permanente hospital in North Hollywood later this week.
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