Update: Sunday, 9/18/11

Along with the therapists and nursing staff at NRH, we are amazed and deeply touched by the outpouring of support for our TEAM FORREST 5 K Race Walk & Wheel Team on next Sunday,
September 25^th at Tysons Corner. Although we have surpassed our original goal, we are continuing to raise money for the adaptive sports program at NRH. Please see the link in the sidebar and come join TEAM FORREST!

Forrest has had a good week, highlighted by his first steps between the parallel bars and slow but deliberate movements of his hands and arms. Sunday is a quiet day with no scheduled therapy. He watched football with his Dad and we did passive range of motion exercises. He is still having some tremors that we are adjusting his medications for. Later this afternoon, he enjoyed a visit from his good friend and former nanny of ten years, Mita Santos, and a spirited balloon fight with everyone including Sundance joining in. A truly amazing moment came at the end of Mita’s visit when we decided to sit him up on the side of the bed. He did that and then with help and support he carefully stood up. After a few minutes we sat him back down and thought we were done. But he sat for a minute and then initiated standing (with assistance) not once more but twice. He was very tired afterwards but clearly he wants to stand, walk and move as he attempts to come back to us.

Mom had a busy week covering with Maylin while Austin attended a business conference in Atlanta. She worked hard but got to see some great efforts from Forrest this week. She also had several girlfriends come into D.C. to help out and sometimes take her to lunch and provide her with an important link to Middleburg. Austin rolled back into town on Saturday and immediately got to work helping his brother out and acting as a great secondary therapist. Dad’s job is as usual is to spend time on the weekends and give Rae and Austin some breaks and provide Forrest with some Dadtime.

Another high point of the weekend was the visit of Hunt Lyman, Forrest’s seventh grade teacher at Hill School. He read several essay’s from Hill School students and then recited several powerful poems that he thought 44 might be interested in. Forrest listened intently as he struggled to regain control of his body. We were all moved by his delivery of “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley. It was written by a 18^th century young Englishman who at 17 had spent much time in hospitals and had most of one leg amputated due to Tuberculosis of the bone. He struggled with his disability but wrote this poem about courage and stoicism nine years later. He went on to be an accomplished poet and editor in London until he died at age 53.

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

We have no doubt that with Forrest’s determination, courage and undaunted spirit he will calm the currents of his mind and recapture the life he is meant to live.

Dad

The family together standing strong

Mita Santos with Forrest

Hunt Lyman reciting Invictus to Forrest