The Power of Testimony

SHAWN THORNTON || 27
“Bev’s back!” Gail yelled, running around the house
before being herded to the car to visit her. April clapped her
hands in celebration. If everyone else was happy, she was
happy too.
Bev’s eyes were open, and she was looking around, but as
was to be expected for someone who had lain motionless in
bed for three months, she had lost some of her body’s functions.
She could not speak, sit up, walk, or use her arms or
hands in any consistent way. She had partial amnesia and
had forgotten the three days preceding the accident and the
accident itself.
“Sit up now, Bev,” the nurses said as they led her through her
first rounds of physical therapy. Carefully, they placed hands
behind her back and brought her forward. Bev’s eyes registered
that it was happening, but her response was wordless.
“We’re going to put your legs over the bed for a few minutes
before laying you back down again, okay?”
Bev gave approval with a look.
Within a few days, they were standing her up between
two strong nurses who held her arms like fence posts so she
wouldn’t pitch forward. They trained her hands so she could
feed herself and handle her own hygiene. She did these tasks
roughly. Her fine motor skills appeared to be gone. She
could not pick up an object without long moments of mental
determination and a slow, clumsy physical response. Her
joints seemed locked in place and no longer moved with the
f luidity of normal human motion.
“These things will come back,” the doctors told her family
encouragingly. “Just keep working with her on them.”