[Ford Man]

We just returned from the hospital about an hour ago and everything seems to be coming along much better that we were expecting. I was able to communicate with Terry tonight and he's able to open his left eye. He had a pretty bad cut that had to be sewn up at his right eye so it's probably going to take some healing before he'll be able to open it. He's not able to speak much, but he's writing us notes. Even in the condition he's in, first he thanked me for coming to see him and bringing my mom, since she doesn't drive. The next thing he said is "how is mom"? I assured him she was doing much better now that he was able to communicate with us and that she knew he was doing so much better. I asked him tonight if he remembered us being there Monday, and just as I suspected Monday he was aware we were there and remembered it. They were saying earlier today they were going to do surgery on his face Friday, but before we left tonight they had updated it to tomorrow saying he was strong enough to go through it, so mom and I are planning to go back to the hospital tomorrow morning to see him before they start the surgery and give him support during the surgery. Right after the accident they were saying he'd be facing multiple surgeries on his face, now the Dr.'s are saying this may be the only surgery he will need so the news just keeps getting better and better. They are estimating the surgery will be somewhere between 5 and 10 hours long (hopefully that will be good news too and only take 2-3 hours), so he'll have a long rough day to go through tomorrow, but hopefully after tomorrow he will be at a point where he can really get started with the healing process. Apparently he remembers everything leading up to the accident, because my sister in law said today one of his notes said "cow?". She said she just told him not to worry about the cow that it was gone now. I don't know whether he was asking if he hit the cow, what happened to the cow, or if he tried to avoid it and was trying to figure out if that's what caused the wreck.

I've talked to several other people who have family in the trauma unit and I'm sure they would all appreciate prayers for their family member and family also. I talked to one lady there tonight who's son in law has been there for 11 days I think she said and he hasn't come to yet. He's a law enforcement officer and an 18 wheeler turned over on top of the car he was in. She said they were flying him by helicopter to Atlanta tomorrow to have him checked out by brain surgeon there to try to find out what's going on with him. One lady who's dad is in the trauma unit surprised everyone tonight by bringing food into the waiting room and placing it on a cart for anyone who wanted something to eat. When we left I gave her $10. and told her if she decided to do this again to use it to help pay for the food and if she didn't just use the money for herself, either way is fine, because she probably brought in close to $100. worth of food tonight to help others. It's really nice to see someone in this type situation trying to do things to help comfort others in the same situation. When we first got there at about 5:00 PM, I heard her say her dad was running a temperature of 107, but when visiting hours rolled around at 8:30 and she went in to see her dad she came out very excited, so I knew she had got some good news. Her dad's temperature was back to normal. Maybe this was God's way of rewarding her for her good deed!

Please keep the prayers coming!!, not only for Terry, but for all the victims and their families.