Competitive figure skater Madeline Mudd has made tremendous strides in her recovery, but has more to accomplish before she’ll be able to live on her own one day. She struggles with short-term memory, but is adapting and making progress. She has learned to rely on her calendar, reminders, timers and a large white board in her room to keep organized.
Madeline takes 1 or 2 classes at Maple Woods Community College each semester. She studies twice as hard as other students, but is learning. She wants to work with animals one day and dreams of owning a cat café, where drinking coffee and petting cats would feature prominently.
She also has discovered a new calling as a skating coach. Madeline had hung up her skates after her stroke, with memory challenges affecting her ability to perform a program. But then the skate director at the Independence Community Ice Rink offered her a job as a "Learn to Skate" coach. She is a natural, and the experience gave her the confidence to re-enroll in skating lessons herself. She is again working with her own coach at the Mudds’ local rink.
Madeline can drive and enjoys the independence driving brings. She has the same great attitude and funny sense of humor she always brought to everything she did. In fact, her determination and strength earned her an impressive honor from U.S. Figure Skating: She was named one of the organization’s Get Up® heroes for embodying a spirit that may fall, but won’t stay down.