As I drove back to Carthage tonight at 8:00, I was anticipating three hours of practicing with music students for juries this week- but when I got to Carthage, I could scarcely believe my eyes- only one single person had signed up to practice with me tonight- and she wasn’t signed up until 9. But that unexpected free hour proved to be a wonderful treat because I just happened to cross paths with my former student and friend Austin Krueger. His mom Marna was teaching an art class tonight and Austin was along to keep her company. By the time I arrived, the class was over and I ended up keeping Austin company while his mom cleaned things up.
To remind you- Austin is the vibrant young man who suffered a massive stroke back in June while playing basketball at the local rec center. The comeback trail has been long and arduous, but Austin has made tremendous progress in regaining his strength. What is perhaps most remarkable, however- and I was reminded of this tonight- is how much Austin is exactly as he always was with the same lively, joyous personality and inquisitive mind. That’s pretty incredible when you think of the devastating brain injury which he suffered. . . I would certainly expect Austin to be perhaps struggling to think of words or slightly halting in the cadence of his speech or maybe speaking with slightly flat inflection. But no- you talk with Austin and there is scarcely a hint of what he has been through – and that really says something about Austin himself and about the resiliency of the human mind. There are physical issues remaining and serious ones- like the challenge of regaining full use of his left side- but what makes it a fair fight, so to speak, is that Austin is Austin, with all of his spirit and faith fully intact. And in a situation which I’m sure has to be terribly frustrating, I am astonished at how positive Austin’s attitude is. If optimism has anything to do with it, Austin will emerge from all this in fine form. He has already accomplished so much first of all just by surviving this ordeal – and by making as much of a comeback as he already has. In fact, Austin hopes to be back at Carthage by next fall – and there is every reason to believe that this goal is within his grasp.
The Kenosha News ran an excellent front page article about Austin a few days ago- and in it was a really incredible story about how love has a way of breaking through what might seem like an insurmountable barrier. It said that when Austin was a very young boy, he and his mom had a neat little code worked out when that he could use when she was having a conversation with someone but Austin wanted to tell her that he loved her. Austin would wordlessly squeeze his mom’s hand three times . . . meaning “I . . . love . . . you” and then he could follow that with two more squeezes that signified “very . . . much.” Back in June, in the immediate wake of Ausitn’s stroke, when he could not speak a word and when he seemed not to be fully awake or conscious, as Marna would sit at Austin’s bedside for hours on end, clutching his hand in hers, he would repeatedly squeeze her hand three times and then two times- – – three times and then two times – – – to say “I love you – very much.” I guess when we need to tell someone we love them, we find a way. Love finds a way.
pictured above: Austin Krueger with two of his good friends from Carthage, Jennifer Cobb and Jennifer Ledanski. We ran into them several months ago at Applebee’s in Kenosha.