Today was my first day in London after arriving late last night from NYC. Koo and I spent a couple of hours walking around the Brick Lane market which is an open air flea market with lots of interesting ethnic food and clothing. We had the most delicious salted beef sandwich on a bagel with hot mustard – yummy! We then continued on to the Jacob Centre to visit Chris in the late afternoon. I had never been to the Jacob Centre before and realized how long it’s been since my last visit with Chris at Holy Cross.

We saw Chris in his chair immediately upon walking into the Jacob. He expressed happy emotions when he saw us, especially towards Koo. It is apparent that Chris recognizes Koo, even if he is not able to make the connection that she is his wife. I’m not sure he knows the relations of people, but it’s clear he recognizes familiar faces. Koo and I discussed this at length as well as other observations with Chris. Overall, I thought Chris looked strong and generally happy - - happier than I’ve seen him in my past visits. In fact, he was the most expressive I’ve seen him since his accident. It is also nice to see his head held straight up in the air. Previously, he would often slump over and his head would fall forward, making it impossible to make any type of connection with him.

We hung out with Chris in his room and Koo massaged his feet with an aromatic minty-flavored oil. He loved this - who wouldn’t?! She then cleaned his teeth in a manner that would make any Dentist proud! I forgot to mention that Chris was sucking on a piece of toffee candy when we walked in and seemed to really take pleasure in the taste. This is another observation I made in terms of his ability to enjoy some simple pleasures. I talked to one of he nurses about the toffee candy asking if it would be dangerous for Chris in case he choked on the candy. She laughed and said he LOVES to eat chocolates and toffees with a cappuccino afterwards! I thought she was kidding, but she was not. So, this simple story is a very positive step in my mind if Chris is able to take pleasure from his senses such as touch (massage) and taste (chocolate, toffee, cappuccino). I would not have said Chris was as expressive a year ago.

We left Chris back in the main hallway where other patients were sitting with a couple of photos before leaving.