We arrived this morning filled with excitement about spending Christmas with Chris.

Chris was making a lot of sounds today, perhaps because of all the hustle and bustle of the holiday events at the Centre, the music, and all the caregivers dressed for the holidays. We all had turkey dinner today which Chris loved – all accept the brussels sprouts. He specializes in his dessert though and always manages to eat ALL of his dessert. Everyone called today, his wife Koo, his Mom, Kim, Brian and Laura and we missed several calls because of a bad signal at Jacob and also international phone lines were jammed.

England closes down for Christmas – literally closes it’s doors. No rail system, no buses, no underground, no airline service, and everything is closed. The only place open are the news stands and I’m not really sure why there open because they don’t print any newspapers either. Country reopens at 12 midnight and tomorrow the 26th is a bank holiday – Boxing Day, a day full of sales and a day when everyone visits their neighbors and friends with boxes of presents. Everyone stays home with family today and waits for the Queens speech at 3PM when she wishes everyone Happy Holidays, talks about her Country and thanks everyone for their good wishes for her 80th birthday this past year. The whole speech takes about 10 minutes.

We have been staying at Chris and Koo’s flat and are using their car for the 1-1/2 > 2 hour trip each day to Jacob Centre. The greatest asset has been the GPS (tom-tom) that Koo acquired to navigate from the flat to Jacob. Jacob is only 33 miles away, 8 miles of which are in London proper. It takes an hour just to go that 8 miles and without the tom-tom it would probably take 8 days to get out of London. London makes NYC look like a walk in the park!

How is Chris……. It’s difficult to gauge his improvement since arriving at Jacob Centre since I last seen him at Holy Cross. Everyone I speak with at Jacob tell me that Chris is getting better. That could be simply that he has gotten better since being at Jacob due to becoming accustomed to his surroundings and/or a combination of his HBOT treatments. However, he’s very loved and the staff believes he is progressing.

From my perspective based upon my nine visits to him since this tragedy 20 months ago I can offer the following thoughts. There have been no giant leaps, just very small steps forward and we look for him to continue to move along further. Slowly. While Chris is still unable to communicate and is 100% immobile I believe he hears us and he sees us. His awareness and alertness to his surroundings, his family and guests is a clear improvement. His eating, chewing and swallowing of food is a big plus. Chris will also smile for you randomly, and will growl at you if you nag him. Lately he’s beginning to make much louder sounds as though really trying to communicate. He laughs randomly, sometimes also very loudly. When he gets excited and struggles to say something his right leg moves up in the air. I’m not sure what triggers his laugh all the time but I know when the caregivers sing and dance for him he smiles broadly and laughs.

Chris responds well to his caregivers when feeding him by opening his mouth for them, chewing his food, swallowing his food and refusing to accept it if he doesn’t want anymore…..unless…. it’s his dessert. He would prefer to only have his dessert, however the caregivers only promise him his dessert after he eats his meal.

I’ve noticed a couple of positive subtle changes on this trip where he seems to be able to move his head freely from side to side when someone is talking to him. I also noticed that when he is in bed and people are walking by his room that he will lift up his head and look out to see who is passing. All of these positives are of course on his good days. Chris is on a roller coaster with good and bad days although even on his bad days his awareness to his surroundings his good. He just sleeps longer and if you wake him you’ll know it because he will be real grumpy and give you a look as if to say….”what did you do that for” ?? You can read his expressions. On his good days he will smile for you with his cheeky smile and even pucker up for a kiss.

While I believe we have made a lot of progress, we have a long journey ahead of us and we must be very patient. His spasticity is poor, his responses to commands is questionable, he cannot communicate and he hasn’t any bodily movement. He receives physio therapy every day. I think we’re getting there. His sounds are becoming louder and more purposeful. He has even said Mom when she was traveling with him for his HBOT. On phone calls from home the caregivers always give positive reports on his reactions, his smiling, his laughing. His wife gives great reports on his better days. Clearly I believe he is desperately trying to speak and becomes frustrated when unable. It’s a real slow process and I don’t believe he will ever reach a plateau.

During this Christmas season of blessings I would like to express my gratitude for the inundation of prayers and the outpouring of love that comes everyday from family and friends from all over the world.

Chris is blessed with a wife who, in the face of grief, has maintained her perseverance and persistence that Chris receives the ultimate in care. We are blessed that both families are united in one common goal – for Chris’ healing; in spite of the challenges his parents and siblings face being so far away from Chris in New York.

We are thankful for the joy of our wonderful son, a brother, an uncle, cousin, and Dad, which can only be matched when we observed him as the wonderful Father he is to his son Gabriel – our Grandson. Gabriel is full of love and joy. He is the brightest star in the sky, who at a mere three years old can speak and understand three languages – English, Korean, and Portugese. He reminds me in so many ways of his Dad, his loving, gentleness, happiness and one who is always willing to help. He loves the outdoors like Chris.

Chris will always make us proud and who will always be loved more than he can know. We pray that God will walk with us through our faith, our trust and patience in Him that He will lead Chris to recovery. We ask that God will grant Chris the courage and strength to rebuild himself so that our commitment to Chris may become reality. We ask for one more blessing and that is for God to grant the science to the technicians that may heal Chris. Every good and perfect gift is from above.

May the joyous blessings of the holiday season be with you throughout the New Year.