Saturday August 1 and Sunday August 2

Weekends at TIRR move at a whole different pace than the loud, sometimes frenetic action that occurs during the week. Few patients receive intensive therapy on the weekends however there are still some therapists who do group activities with patients on both Saturdays and Sundays. In the common areas, patients play dominoes, cards, and other games which help with mental acuity and provide interaction. Last weekend, John played Wii bowling and he almost won first. I'm pretty sure the winner was a Wii shark but my understanding is that John had a blast so I guess it's not that important who won. The week before that, John participated in Bingo and he won first place.

Today, Holly and John played some catch in the hallway with another patient named Jason. Jason is a senior in high school and has really been interested in getting to know John and visa-versa. There is a true connection between these patients and their shared circumstances and sometimes they can just look into each others eyes and you see as an observer what so many words cannot say. Some of the patients can speak and others have difficulty but John is friendly to everyone and will frequently reach out his hand to shake that of another or thank his therapists throughout the day with a handshake or verbally. John has always had impeccable manners and is as friendly as ever which shouldn't surprise anyone.

Over this weekend, Paulette went home for some much needed respite and to check on things at her house and take care of household chores, etc. Holly spent most of the weekend with John and they even napped together. Holly provides a much needed normalcy to this whole situation for John and it seems as though he is becoming more aware each day of what has happened to him and why he is where he is. He is now walking from his room to the common area to enjoy meals and Holly took him to the main cafeteria twice over the weekend to enjoy something from the buffet line. The food at TIRR is really good and John has not found a dish there he doesn't like! The main cafeteria is just like a restaurant and he enjoyed selecting items from the menu and loved the breakfast tacos yesterday and pancakes today.

This week will continue John's intensive therapeutic sessions and I hope to get back to TIRR soon to get some more photographs. As always, thanks so much for keeping up with the blog and your continued support of John, and us.