{Karlton Bontrager}

Today is my last day in New Zealand. A number of people have asked if the website will continue. Yes, of course it will. I intend to call Karlton and Choy-Lang every day, and I will attempt to write updates on a regular basis. No doubt it will take us a week or so to develop a new rhythm for our communications. However, your very enthusiastic responses to the website have convinced me that it is important to continue.

As I prepare to say good-bye to Karlton, I cannot help but make comparisons with my first hello to him in New Zealand. Then he was lying unconscious in a hospital bed, hooked up to all kinds of machines and monitors, and his face had swollen to twice its normal size. Now he wakes up to full alertness, makes conversation, complains, cracks jokes, and plays pranks. Then I felt crushed when the neurosurgeon told his mother and me of having removed a portion of his brain the size of an orange. Now I am increasingly amazed as he speaks in three languages and makes us aware that more and more of his memory has returned. Then I worried about whether he could breathe independently. Now I worry about setting up a network of resources and supports in the United States so that he can continue his rehabilitation and recovery without interruption.

There are some questions that I will probably never have answered. At what point, for instance, did he realize that it was not usual for both his parents to be at his side–that he was an ocean away from home, but his parents were there too? Was there an actual fall that triggered the return from ISIS to the hospital, or was that merely a hallucination? And did the stand-off with the nurses and the doctors on that Sunday night have a direct payoff? In the short term, they won because we gave in to their procedures. But in the long run, we won because the nurses left him alone throughout that night, the in-dwelling PICC line replaced the daily drawing of blood and cutting of vein lines, and his antibiotics have been switched to oral administration.

The most gratifying thing for me has been the bond that has grown between Karlton and me during this time. He now acknowledges openly the difficulties he had with me in the past, but he is able to look beyond them and enjoy our present relationship. That for me is a tremendous reward.

And so I return to my wonderful Louis who has worked valiantly to keep life somewhat normal in Rhode Island. And I return to the real world of employment. In the past, I have wanted to hold onto summer a little longer, postponing the beginning of the academic year. But this summer has not been one I want to prolong. Instead, I embrace the very near future when Karlton returns home and continues his rehabilitation Stateside.