'A bit of sunshine': P.E.I. man asks for cards to brighten long hospital stay

A Prince Edward Island man isasking for pictures andletters from anywhere around the world to brighten his stayin a Summerside, P.E.I., hospital.

Garfield MacLeanhas been apatient in theintensive care unit of Prince County Hospital for nearly three weeks, recovering from surgery for a serious lung infection.

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"We didn't know if he was going to make it," said his wife Lori MacLean. "We're always together. We're never apart unless one of us is at work, or off doing something else. We're always together. So it's rough."

Doctors aren't able to tell the MacLeans when Garfield may be discharged.

"Right now, it's one day at a time as far as recovery," she said. "We have to go through a whole lot of new therapy now. We have to get his lungs back in shape ... we have to go through speech therapy."

She said her husband is currentlyunable to speak and has to write to communicate.

Right now, the couple istrying to improve the view from Garfield's hospital bed.

"He says it's boring," Lori said. "He said because the walls are just plain, you know ... that's all you see."

After the surgery, the MacLeans' daughter made a card for Garfield, which was hung in his room.

"I came in the next morning.Hesaid he was looking at itand he said how much it made him happy to see that," Lori said.

That's when MacLeantold Lori that he'd like put out a request for pictures and cardsto put up in his room not just from friends and family in P.E.I., but anywhere in theworld.

So Lori posted thatrequest for her husband on Facebook.

"That same day, I got to the post office, set up a P.O. box and we started putting it out there. That was his request and I jumped on it. It was the least I could do," Lori said.

'Send a bit of sunshine'

The MacLeans have now been promised letters from as far as Singapore, and they're hoping Garfield's request reaches as many people as possible.

"He just wants the interaction. You can't have too many visitors when you're in the I.C.U.," Lori said.

The MacLeans said they look forward to any help brightening up the hospital room.

"It's just the fact people are taking their time out of their busy schedule to send a bit of sunshine," Lori said."It would just brighten all our days."

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