Hi to all! I hope everyone is doing well. Everything is still going good at the Berryman household. Mary is still doing pretty well. She continues to do very good at her job, and enjoying it. Volleyball season is nearly over, and Mary played virtually the entire season! I am being very honest when I say that I did not believe that would have been possible. She showed me! She also showed a lot of others that giving up is not an option. She has been through so much, so much that most all of you will never know. She has persevered through this whole thing, and I am so very proud of her. She is getting stronger, and is doing a lot more walking now. This morning we went for a walk, and she made it all the way, which was 1.75 miles! That is quite an accomplishment. When I think back to the time in rehab when I was so excited that she made it 10ft, it is amazing! She still wants everything to come back to normal. How far she actually will get, only God knows. She is trying, and working at it still. We still have a ways to go. But the finish line on our road is so much closer than it was just a few short months ago.
This is going to be my last blog. Things are going good, and hopefully they will continue to go in the right direction. I have thoroughly enjoyed writing all this time to keep you all informed of Mary's progress. To those of you who have kept up with this blog, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. It has in a sense, been my own therapy to "get it out". It has helped me cope with this whole thing also. I just feel my entries are getting pretty monotonous, and that is a good thing because they are all positive! None the less, this will be my final entry. If you want to keep up with Mary's progress, she is just a phone call away!
Once again, for the final time, Thanks. God bless you all!

Hi everyone. I keep trying to think of new things to write every once in a while to keep those of you who still read this, updated on Mary and her progress. I feel like I am getting very repetitious on what I am saying. And even this time, still, Mary is doing well! Work is going good, still playing volleyball, and so on. She is doing well! Then, I thought of writing a different kind of letter. One that is probably well overdue. This is a letter of thanks. I want to take the time today to thank all of our wonderful friends who have been there for us during this whole life changing event. It started the night we were in the emergency room. Our friends were there. If not in person, (some were), it was on the phone. They were always there. I seriously don't know what I would have done the whole time without the support of our great friends. You really find out who your true friends are during those times. They shine. To our friends that helped us out, (you know who you are), I will never be able to thank you enough. To Mary's work friends, you will never know how much you all meant to her during her recovery. Those visits while she was in the hospital meant so much to me, and I know they mean a lot to Mary now. My heartfelt thanks to everyone who sent gifts and the massive pile of cards (we still have!).
And, what would we have done without our family? They were there from the beginning, and to this day they still are helping us out in any way possible. We love them very much. Without them, it would have been very hard to cope with the whole reality of what happened to Mary. Thanks to everyone in both of our families for everything that they have done.
To close, once again, Mary continues to improve a little all the time. We are about 8 months in to her recovery time. It doesn't seem that long ago! But each day that goes by, I realize that I still have my Mary here, and she is one step closer to reaching that finish line on the road we started back in November. One foot in front of the other! Thanks.

Hi everyone, sorry for the long absence in writing. Mary celebrated her 46th Birthday yesterday! It, as always, wasn't a big deal to her. Believe me when I say it was a very big deal for the rest of the family. When I first got up in the morning, I was thinking how June 8th could have been a completely different day for me. Turns out is was great. Mary is still going strong, and continues to make baby step improvements. She has been working pretty much full days at work (from the house), and is doing well at it. She continues to play volleyball 2 times a week, and seems to get a little more active each week. She's making some really good shots! Her attitude has gotten better over the last few weeks, and that makes me happier than anything. It is so hard to see her when she is down. Anyway, all in all, she is still going down the road in the right direction. That all we can ask of her. Sorry this is short, but I gotta get back to work! Thanks

Hello again. Just a quick update on my Mary. Today marks her first 2 weeks of going back to work, and she is doing pretty good. Actually, she called me this morning and they are going to let her start working from home again. This is what she had planned to do all along, before this whole ordeal started. She had only worked 1 day at home before this life changing event happened to her. When she told me that this morning I had goosebumps while she was talking to me on the phone. Her supervisor told her that her quality (errors, etc...) has been very good so far. They understand that she is going to be a little slower with her production levels, but they know that will improve. She has already made a big improvement in the last week alone. Anyway, another step down the road. We play volleyball tonight at 6:00 and I hope that leads in to a good weekend. Please keep Mary in your prayers, as she is really battling to keep her spirits up lately. She has every right to be down, her life has been turned upside down the last 6 months. She just so desperately wants to be normal again. She wants her old life back. We all want that, but she can't change what happened to her. She has to embrace and accept it, and get as far back as she can. She's trying. We are there for her and always will be. Got to go, as always... thanks.

May 11, 2009, 7:35am

Good Morning, I hope everyone had a good weekend. We had a pretty nice weekend here. Weather was beautiful, and we were able to go to both of our families houses to celebrate Mother's Day. It was nice. Mary is at work as I am writing this today! She has been cleared to work 4 hours a day, for the first 2 weeks, and then we will see how it goes. She is so ready to get back to her normal life, or as close as she can get. She actually had her first day on Friday, but she could never get signed on to her system. She was able to see that she has over 1600 emails waiting for her to go through when she does get signed in! Ugh!! Today should be a better day for her though. I am sure they will work out all the bugs and get her going. Please keep Mary in your prayers this week, as I know she is going to need some extra strength to get through this week. Her energy level is still not where I would like to see it. I know that will come in time. She is still playing volleyball on Mondays and Fridays. She doesn't think she is doing very well, but I think she is doing great. She is not the old running and diving Mary yet, but she is getting stronger each time she plays. She just needs to keep pushing herself to get better and stronger. She is such and inspiration to a lot of people. The words of "never give up" sure come in to play when speaking of Mary. You just never know when life is going to throw you a curve ball. She is definitely still swinging. Well, I better get to work, hope you all have a great day! Thanks.

May 2, 2009

Hi again. Just another little update to report. Mary is still doing pretty good. We had another sand volleyball game last night and again Mary played. She did really well this week. She saw the ball alot better this time, and she just looked more comfortable out there. She had quite a few good hits and even good sets! More times than not she just had a smile on her face, and that makes our whole team have a better time. She didn't even fall down one time this week either. Even Mary noticed that! She said on the way home that she felt better out on the court this week. I was so happy for her. We all were. The next big step now, is getting Mary back to work. I think she is maybe going to try to jump back in as early as next week. It will be slow going at first, (who knows, maybe not) but I think she is ready. She needs it in her life. She just has so much time right now to think about things, and I feel it really gets to her. She needs something to occupy her time and give her a purpose. I thinks it will be hard for her at the start, but I think she's ready for it. She thinks so too. Please keep Mary in your prayers for this next big step down the road to recovery. It has been quite a journey so far, with many, many, bumps in the road, a few minor detours, but she is still going in the right direction. Thanks for all your help! Have a great day!

April 27th, 2009

Good Morning all, thought I would do a quick update on Mary this morning. A couple of thing have happened that are news worthy. Last Friday Mary was released from physical therapy! What an accomplishment that is. When she walked in to the place she was walking very slowly with a quad cane. When she left she was doing high level work out moves. Then, on Friday night, Mary actually played in our sand volleyball game! WOW! She doesn't think she did very well, but the rest of us thought she did great. I think it is going to be good therapy for her also. It was so nice to see her out there. I will be honest, I did not think she would be out there playing this season, and I really didn't know if she would ever play again. She has come so far in such a short time. She still has a long way to go. I think she will get there. After this weekend, I for the first time think she will get there! She just has to be patient and keep up the exercise. Please keep praying for Mary for strength to get through this whole ordeal. Thanks to you all, and have a wonderful day.