This Kiss...This Kiss

This picture was taken on December 11, 2010. Only ten days into our horrific ordeal. Our niece, Colleen Barry, was in the room with us when I asked him for a kiss and he responded like this: he turned, lifted his head, puckered and kissed me. I'm so grateful she was there and offered to take this picture. It truly means more to me than I can adequately express. And as a side note, there was only one nurse in the ICU that I didn't like, and she told me he wasn't responding to commands. Does this look like he wasn't responding to a command? He just didn't like her either.

I re-visit this day and share this picture because Mark has been very loving the last few days. He has felt an overwhelming sense of closeness to me and gratitude for all that I've done for him and our family. We have snuggled and shared our feelings and kissed A LOT over the weekend (this is a family show & is G-rated). It's nice to have that part of my husband back.

I was discussing with some friends how Mark's "affect is flat". That's what the doctors call it. It means his personality isn't really there. Not much expression on his face or in his demeanor. I expressed that it's probably not going to return and a friend asked if maybe it could be due to depression. I hadn't really thought about that. I assumed it was the brain injury and all was lost. But I saw some of his personality creeping back in this weekend. He was trying to make me laugh. And tonight he put his pajama bottoms on backwards and asked me to look at something on his back so that I'd notice them. I laughed out loud and told him they were on backwards and he said he'd done that on purpose. So perhaps some of it is depression and all of my Mark will eventually emerge. I can only hope. It felt really good to laugh with my husband.

Blessing of the Day: laughter