Day 426 – Grayson’s Journey

Dear family and friends

Today we were blessed with a visit from my dear cousin Doug, himself a brain injury survivor. For a time today, we had both of our miracle men under one roof.

We had a great, albeit too short, visit with Doug who we haven't seen since 2007. A that time, Doug was still recovering from his near-neurological disaster, but he was walking around with the aid of a cane. Today he is driving and cane free and just as fun and interesting as I always remembered. It was great catching up, and our conversations rambled over a million topics, as always. This wonderful man continues to provide a living example of the kind of person I would like to emulate.

Grayson sat around the table and listened intently for an hour or so – laughing at the funny stories that Doug tells and watching us all intently. Then he became "saturated" and went to sit in the quiet of another room and read one of his favorite comic anthologies – Zits. He was content to sit there and glance over his shoulder at us talking and laughing for the remainder of the visit.

Meanwhile, Austin was participating with the USC team in the Pac 10 Rugby Tournament. Austin was scheduled to play in the three matches today, but early in the first match against Cal he went the host hospital (they were playing at UCLA) to take a look at a nasty cut on his chin. (I am told that he earned it making a great tackle.) When he walked into the UCLA Medical Center ER the attending physician said, "Let me guess – rugby?" The clothes should have been a dead giveaway, but Austin was the third visit already from the 8 participating teams (USC, UCLA, Arizona, Oregon, Washington State, Utah and 2 teams from Cal). Tough sport. Austin had 7 stitches in his chin, and then dropped Xixi off at work and joined us for dinner. That also was a nice visit. We hope that the weekend does not bring too much more business to the UCLA ER, as the tournament concludes tomorrow.

Wonderful visits today!

Pax!

Brant