{Karlton Bontrager}

I’ve mentioned before that time has been amorphous for Karlton. He gets impatient if he has to wait 5 minutes, thinking it has taken hours instead. I believe the problem was that he was not able to read the face of an analog clock. The night I spent with him, I kept track of the time it took the painkillers to work. He was totally dependent on my time keeping. On Thursday, however, I noticed that Karlton looked at the wall clock and read the time easily. The next day, he glanced at the clock and read it with no effort at all. In fact, time played an important part of his thinking. He seemed to wonder how it could be that he felt rested after having slept only from 7:30a to 9:15a. How could he miss a night’s sleep and feel refreshed after only about two hours of rest?

He wonders about other things too. On Saturday morning, Choy-Lang and I had a quiet time with him between breakfast and shower. He mentioned that he hadn’t been able to figure out why he came to New Zealand. That gave us the opportunity to explain the OMBAC rugby connection–how the New Zealanders on that team in San Diego, CA had encouraged Karlton to come to this country to play rugby. Carrying the history forward meant explaining that we ourselves had come to New Zealand to be with him because of his accident. His “thank you” felt so good.

The ISIS resident gave Karlton a check-up on Friday. We learned that Karlton has feeling in both the right and left limbs, but if both hands or both legs are stimulated simultaneously, he is aware only of the sensation on the right side. In another set of investigations, Karlton demonstrated the ability to tense his left thigh muscles. The PTs have given us hints of this, noting the muscle tensing when he walks. But this was our first time to witness it.

One of the ICU nurses has a sister who is a nun of the order Little Sisters of the Poor. The mission of the Little Sisters is to work with the elderly poor. But they have shown a keen interest in the two young American men at Dunedin Hospital who recently had snow sports accidents—Karlton and Kevin Ormbsy (for more information about Kevin, see http://www.webgatordesign.com/kevin/). On Saturday afternoon the nuns invited Kevin’s parents and us for a visit to see their hospital, retirement home, and chapel. Then we had tea together. They treated us like celebrities. They knew us by name, having prayed for us for so long, and they wanted to see pictures of our sons and of the rest of the family members. How good it was to meet some of the many people who are praying so fervently.

On our return to the hospital, we witnessed another miracle. Karlton is able to move his left arm in a new way. He tenses his left biceps and pulls the forearm up off the pillow dramatically until his hand is pointing straight up. Wow!

The summer holidays are coming to a rapid end, and I need to think about employment once more. I plan to return to the United States on Friday, August 23rd. Choy-Lang intends to stay on with Karlton through the month of September. Perhaps other family members can come to New Zealand if Karlton needs to stay longer. By then, on the other hand, he may feel independent enough to stay on alone. In any case, we think at the moment that ISIS is where Karlton needs to be.

Thanks to all of you for your continued prayers and support. Special thanks this week go to Alice, Helen, Nina & Sam, Maree, and Sister Erin and the Little Sisters of the Poor.