Friday 11AM

A better morning today. Jamie was moved out of the Intensive Care Unit late yesterday and now is resting well in a quiet room. Reports from the medical teams are all pretty good with a positive prognosis.

She goes for some physical and cognitive testing today to determine if there are any issues lurking in the shadows that we've not yet identified. Initial results from that should be coming later today. She's had a lot of company and seems to be improving but is still pretty beat up from a very invasive surgery. Keep the good thoughts coming.

Suzanne told me about an encounter she had yesterday that was, in her words, "a moment". I thought I'd share it with you.

In the ICU was a young man in the next bed who was terribly injured from a gunshot. The bullet made a long trip through him and caused massive damage internally. For the entire time we were in the ICU, he was there, unconscious, on a ventilator, surrounded by family. It was a large group that appeared to be brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and probably friends. There was always a big group present; he was strongly supported and obviously much loved. Suzanne and his mother were both at the bedsides of their respective children for much of the time.

At one point, Suzanne said she looked up and into the eyes of the other mother standing next to her son. They don't speak the same language so nothing was said. Nothing needed to be said. The look in their eyes revealed what was in their hearts - revealed how hard this was. A mother's love for her child is like nothing else. In that instant, between them, they shared the same physical and emotional space. It is so hard to watch your child suffering. So hard to be so powerless. For only the space of a few seconds - and without words, all the space between people and cultures and politics and beliefs was spanned. For that instant it was clear that whatever you see on the outside, there is no difference on the inside. That most basic of human emotion - love - knows no division. Neither age nor race nor spiritual belief matters. One, and the same. It was a moment...