In all the excitement of the past few days, I forgot to mention a very important detail. Vernon was moved back to Kindred Brea, the long-term rehabilitation hospital, his home-away-from-home, on Tuesday night. And for about 18 hours, he had a room to himself. A window seat, this time!
Vernon, as you can see by the last video Chris posted, is suddenly very chatty. Its entertaining if often confusing. In the course of an hour, he can call me three different names. For example, when he wanted help with something, he called me Vanessa (his sister’s name.)
When I said, “I’m not Vanessa,” he insisted, “Yes, you are!”
After arguing a little over it, he relaxed and asked, “What would you prefer to be called then?”
“By my name: Allison.”
He nodded and said, “Ok, then…Allison.” He seemed happy enough with that.
I spent much of the morning redecorating his walls with some the photos that have now been taped over four different hospital rooms. He seemed semi-interested in them, some more than others, as I showed them too him, explaining who each picture was of. In the meantime, his new roommate arrived, an elderly, quiet gentleman, who seems very nice. This man also has a wife, and when she arrived to visit him, clucking over him and saying everything would be alright, Vernon looked at me, slightly embarrassed, and said, “Maybe we should leave them alone? Maybe we should go somewhere else?” How delightfully polite and impractical of him. His Englishness is emerging, without a doubt.
Later the same day, when Chris and Maki went to visit, and they mentioned his walls, Vernon responded, “Oh yes! There was a lady who came earlier…she put up all these photos.”
One minute he responds to “I love you” with the standard “I love you too.” Ten minutes later, he might light up at the same words, totally flattered say: “REALLY? Why?” as if I’m some flirty girl he just met.
One constant to his memory, though, is Maki. Even if he did imagine two Makis in the room the other night, he knows his son and thinks of him relatively clearly. I think this is very special for Maki, who has been very brave through this whole ordeal, but missing his father very much. To know his father sees him and knows him so consistently as such an important figure in his psyche, after so many months of being somewhere else…to hear and see that he is STILL such a part of his father’s heart, even if his brain hasn’t come back completely…must be incredibly validating. And it must be a huge relief! I’m probably projecting my thoughts on to Maki here, but to me, it seems that Maki is finally able to exhale in a way. I see the spring in his step, his laugh is easier.
Or maybe its my spring, my laugh, and so I see those around me in that light too.
If I didn’t have so much going on in our home-world, I’d be up there everyday, just as I was able to be in the summertime, when he was sleeping. Maki feels the same. We don’t want to miss anything he says.
It would be great we could videotape every single thing Vernon says right now. Then you could understand for yourselves instead of my running a commentary. Believe it or not, I don’t feel right about holding up a camera the entire time we are together. So we can only share random snippets. How like real-life conversations to retain a few gems and forget the rest. Ah, but it’s all so entertaining! This man of few words is suddenly set loose without a filter. The past is the present is the future is the past is the present: forgetting, remembering, all mixed up, words come out wrong..and exactly right. It seems like a man narrating his own dream, but to him, its TRUE. It’s his NOW. And lucky us…we get to hear about it! Who cares if it makes sense to us, its a gift just to listen.
“If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.” — William Blake
And such is the wonder of a healing mind.
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oh Allison, i`m just wondering who i will be , when i visit?? ..as always your update is from your heart, i`m sure Vern, in the future, will see that you have been there for him,sat with him..just been there every step , and also you have had to keep the “home world” going, your love for him is clear for everyone to see , even those who do not know you…it will all slot into place , meanwhile you two can have a good old fashioned flirt…
lots of hugs to you all , from all of us xx
I feel a spring in my step too! Lots of love x
My wife and I follow your blog daily. It encourages us to experience your journey and we appreciate your positive perspective in spite of a difficult walk. We thank you for a strong testimony of God’s grace that you display in your writing. We uphold you in our prayers almost daily.
Frank
I feel similarly. How extraordinary are Allison’s writings and perceptions. I too follow the blog and pray daily.
ah!!! love and hugs.
Such good news and so wonderful for Maki. Continued love and prayers, my dear. And I think it quite charming that you are Vernon’s “flirty girl”. Love you!
Oh Allison, how very meaningful and profound are your descriptions of a mind putting itself back together. From my distant perspective it seems like his darker times, his more lost times have related to the surfacing and presence of infections. I am prayerful that the infections will remain controlled so that he can continue this current awesome process.
I am so thankful for Vernon’s healing, more sweet & mighty God!
Shortly before Vern’s accident, I had posted something on the Google Font blog that made a reference to “Frankenstein”. Vern emailed me off-blog and told me that he had once lived in a residence previously occupied by Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein. (And wife of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.)
He wrote that wen we both had a little free time, he’d tell me about it.
And then, the accident.
Now, for some reason, I have never ever felt that Vern was never going to be able to tell me that anecdote or observation or whatever it was he said he wanted to share with me.
I’m not spiritual or religious. And I’ve got a lot of friends and family in the medical profession and so I have little in the way of illusions about the odds of recovery from a trauma like this. But for some reason, I’ve always had the feeling I would get to hear Vern’s story about ‘having lived where Mary Shelley once lived’.
And so I wait. But – call it a hunch – I think that day will come.
I just do.
Maybe I should ask him about that. Its funny the things that come back to him now. If not tomorrow, maybe in a week or two. Its nice to know its all in there somewhere, if a little unorganized. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Richard. Hold onto that hunch, he’s coming around!
hi richard ..(i`m Verns sister),this as got me thinking as to where Vern lived with this connection, all i know is … Mary Shelley died on February 1, 1851, at age 53, in London, England. She was buried at St. Peter’s Church in Bournemouth, laid to rest alongside her father and mother and with the cremated remains of her late husband’s heart.
Vern has lived in london and ofcause comes from Bournemouth..but then Vern has moved around a lot, and has lived in many homes here in England, Germany , Norway and now America….maybe some research into Mary Shelly…
hi Richard , have spoken to my mum and she says that Vern, after leaving school, went to Bournemouth art college , at what is called Boscombe Manor (shelly park),Sir Percy Florence Shelley owned the property mainly with the intention of it becoming a home for his mother Mary Shelley. Sir Percy and his wife liked the place, and made it their home after his mother dead…what my brother knew or saw i don`t know …
Praise the Lord…and continued Prayer!!
After that wonderful story it makes you just want to come up and see Vernon in action! We just giggled through the whole message and thought “how precious and wonderful and awesome”…..