Sunday, July 13

On Thursday evening, Tommy's sister and brother-in-law, Elaine and Alan, visited, and Elaine had a great impromptu "physical-therapy session" with Tommy using his pair of red hand-exercise balls. She got him to actually put a ball in the palm of her hand and let go of it with his right hand, something that none of the therapists had been able to get him to do (Tommy has a problem "letting go" with his right hand; usually, once he grasps something, he holds it so tightly that it's difficult to pry his fingers off of it). Alan and I were cheering Tommy--and Elaine! There was also a very funny moment when Elaine was trying to get Tommy to talk more. She took the balls in her hands, crossed her arms in front of her chest, and said, "Okay, Tommy, where are the balls now?" After asking him two or three times, he finally said, "They're under your boobies." That's Tommy.
Weekends are slow at the center, as there are no therapy sessions, so Tommy and I just hang out together. Each evening after dinner, I read him another chapter of My Demon Motorboat (Tommy's favorite book from childhood), which is a very funny book and which weaves in all kinds of information about how to run--and how not to run--a motorboat. There's no subject that Tommy finds more interesting, so he listens intently.
SPECIAL NOTE: Every day, Tommy and I go through the cards that you folks have sent (when Tommy receives cards now, he is able to open them by himself, which takes a long time but which he obviously relishes); and then I add the new photos that have arrived with the notes to the photo album that Janis sent, and we go through that, talking about everybody in the photos. So keep those cards and pictures coming---Tommy Long, P.O. Box 1427, Ocean View, DE 19970.