Don't cry

It has been a week since my mom returned home from the hospital.

She has since made a little progress. She is eating quite well, oat meal for breakfast, porridge for lunch and dinner, and milk in between. She can raise her right arm further than before if she wants to. Occasionaly I would wheelchair her to the living room or downstairs. When she saw a sad scene on TV, she would cry.

However, one moment she could remember you, and the next moment she would stare blankly at you.

I still talk to her non-stop. Whenever she forgets, I have to tell her everything all over again. It is hard to communicate because the only reaction she could do is to blink her eyes. How I wish she can talk.

Actually she did talk, once, when I hurt her leg accidentally while trying to shift her on the bed one night."你整到我脚!" ("你弄到我的脚", or "You hurt my leg") she exclaimed. I was shocked. When I asked her to repeat what she said, she couldn't.

Last time, when I watched movies in which the paralysed guy got so agitated that he managed to stand up, regain his speech and started to scold the baddie, I thought what bullshit that is. Now I know there might be some truth in it. One has to get really agitated, or perhaps in pain, for that to happen.

So I threatened mom: "If you still don't talk, I will start pinching you!"

She also laughed once. That evening she kept looking at the clock which stood at 7pm. I tried to figure out what she meant, making guesses from 7th uncle to 开门七件事. After many many attempts, I gave up and said, "Mom, are you kidding me?" Then she laughed!

But the past two days, even though I was spending most of the time at her bedside over the weekend talking to her, she couldn't seem to recognise me.

Aaron