Pat Chawki's classmates thought he was dead -- they'd even memorialized him two years ago at their 20th high school reunion.
But when one Grant High School alum wrote to Chawki's sister to express her condolences, she learned that the popular former baseball star lay paralyzed and nearly forgotten in a Canoga Park nursing home.
Laurie Green discovered that for the last nine years, Chawki has suffered from a rare disorder that renders him fully cognitive, but unable to move or speak. Because he cannot talk or write, he was unable to tell his family how to reach his friends.
Green, 38, of Studio City, immediately went to the nursing home. She snapped pictures of the 41-year-old Chawki and posted them on Facebook, explaining to friends that their buddy was still very much alive -- and very lonely.
Soon, a parade of former classmates was making regular trips to visit him. On one visit, Green noticed that Chawki could move his thumb up and down.
Taking a cue from the movie "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," about a man with a similar disorder called "locked-in syndrome" who wrote a book by blinking his eyes, Green devised an alphabet poster that friends could use to help him communicate.
His old buddies were stunned to find that Chawki was not only alive but was alert and mentally active. With his thumb, he slowly used the poster to spell out: "I love you all."
"At the 20th reunion, people said he had a brain tumor and had passed away. That's all we knew -- that he'd passed away," said former Grant High baseball player Harlan Berk, now a 40-year-old charter fishing boat owner who lives in San Diego.
"When I saw the pictures Laurie had posted on the computer, I sat there for an hour in tears. I called my mother to tell her that Pat Chawki is still alive. I called up all the other team members -- these are friends you have for life."
Berk played first base on the Grant team. Chawki, described then by The Times as "a defensive specialist with a good arm and good speed in the outfield," played left field. The team was propelled to the city championship in 1986 by pitching standout Rod Beck.
Classmate Stacey Beck, 40, said she almost fell out of her chair when she read Green's Internet posting.
Her husband, who had gone on from high school to pitch for the San Francisco Giants, Chicago Cubs, Boston Red Sox and San Diego Padres, died in 2007 from an accidental drug overdose.
