Gift of recorder after mean theft

Press, 3 June 1982, Page 10

Gift of recorder after mean theft

PA Auckland Debra Walker's room in Ward 6B at the Auckland Hospital will again be filled with the sound of her favourite music. The cassette recorder that Mrs Colleen Walker used in order to encourage a response from her daughter, recovering from a serious accident, had been stolen from Debra’s room. But . now the family is looking much happier, as Autocrat Sanyo, Ltd, gave her a new cassette recorder. “I don’t know what to say,” Mrs Walker said. “It is really lovely of people to offer all this help.” However, Mrs Walker said she still wanted the thief to return her daughter’s cassette recorder.

“Someone out there must be feeling guilty,” she said. Since the news of the theft was first publicised, Mrs Walker has been deluged with offers to replace the stolen recorder. Doctors were doubtful that Debra Walker would live after she was seriously injured in a car accident on Norfolk Island on January 22. She was in a coma for two weeks but can respond now with movement from her eyes, lips and hands. The daily playing of Debra’s favourite music does invoke a response from her, Mrs Walker believes.

“I can tell by just looking at her face,” Mrs Walker said. “If I turn the music off she looks round to see why.”