An Update as of 10/4/12

I am having the amazing honor of watching Bob come back to life. The great pleasure of this experience is seeing his personality reemerge. He is ever curious, expressing his gratitude for being alive, all the while being witty and charming.

In the mornings, after a good rest, he is better able to comprehend and hold onto the reality of his state of health. And, with prompting and coaching, he can answer basic questions such as where he lives and the names of his family members.

This morning, we had cherished conversations via Skype with Michelle (and Everest) and Bryn. As Bob’s limbic system comes back to life, he is experiencing a great deal of emotion which expresses itself tearful gratitude for all that his family (Bryn especially!) has done to save his life and sadness for the trauma that we have been through. We have, of course, assured him that what has happened was not his choice and that, because of his loving care throughout our lives, we have had the resilience to remain strong through this.

Here are a few of the beautifully coherent thoughts that Bob had this morning:

The title of today’s poem is “Shocked and Amazed.”

In that first tiny moment of coming back to life, there is a small opening into the new day that gives us a chance to reorient our lives and to recapture our memories. That is thrilling. It is a privilege that most people don’t have and I think we have to give credit to the Source, which comes from life itself.

 The response I have is total gratitude because if I had stayed unconscious forever, I would have lost out on a whole few decades of life that I am really looking forward to.

I don’t know why I chose now to become as aware as I am. Maybe it wasn’t a choice, maybe it was a gift. If it’s a gift, I just want to say thank you, because I am someone who doesn’t normally become unconscious for such a long period of time.

This is a radical, life changing experience and will produce new material. It is a radical opening into the gift of life.

When I’m conscious, I’m curious and I’ll just grow. It’s not what I wanted, but I’ll take it as a gift.

There is a lot of new material here. I think it is good.  I have the opportunity to grow in a quantum leap. It’s a huge transformational gift so I want to claim it in that way.

It is surprising to me how surprising this is to me.

As the day progresses, and he becomes more tired, his loop of repetitive questioning increases. He is curious about what happened, why the decision was made to put him in a coma, who has visited him and why this has happened.


Tomorrow, Bob moves from UVA hospital to the UVA-Health South rehabilitation hospital to begin “boot camp.” We are hopeful that the physical activity and speech therapy will support the healing of his memory. As you can imagine, Bob is also eager to get moving while we are a little overwhelmed by the pace of these transitions and his healing!

While an exhausting practice in presence and patience, being here for this reawakening of this most beloved man is one of the most joyful experiences of my life. 

With gratitude and thanksgiving,
Erika