As Day Sixty-Nine & Seventy end, Jenny finishes her fourth weekend at Riverview Health Centre. I still remember very clearly the Jenny from that very first weekend four weeks ago. She had kept repeating

“Is this home?”

and was confused why this new “home” didn’t feel like home to her.

Four weeks later, the changes within herself are heartwarming but the changes are also solemn. Jenny has begun acknowledging, most of the time, that she was in a terrible accident and that she has been badly hurt. She has no memory of the accident itself but accepts that something must have happened because she is very clearly not her normal self anymore.

However, following yesterdays Holiday gathering, Jenny’s mood this weekend has been jovial. She was constantly trying to remember as many people as she could, repeating names over and over again but failed in remembering everyone. As I watched her struggle, I came to a decision over something I was debating these past few weeks.

I decided Jenny was ready to begin using her phone again.

Originally, due to the ease of access of so much information, I feared Jenny’s brain would get overloaded or that she would be able to read things that might trigger extreme emotions, pain or even Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. If Jenny begins using her phone again, along with the bombardment of messages from friends and coworkers, she would also be able to eventually navigate to this very website which means she would be able to see the records of her accident. Was her brain ready for this? I did not have the answer though I have pondered over it many times. I knew eventually at some point, she would have to begin using her phone again. As I watched her struggle to try and remember all the people that visited her yesterday, I decided that now was the time for her to begin using her phone once more as the visual aids of such a wonderful memory would help her more than the consequence.

With this milestone being decided right then and there, Jenny officially has access to her own phone again. I have to accept that at some point she will inevitably stumble upon details of her own accident – the very accident she cannot remember or perhaps she has deeply suppressed. Whichever side of fallout occurs in that critical moment will be something she must go through. I hope I’ll be there when it happens as though I am here everyday, I no longer can be there every hour. But that’s enough pondering about the near future, right now Jenny can at least smile at the memories from yesterday and begin reading all the messages that were sent to her since October 1, 2023.