She was right

 Many years ago Ann Landers ran a column with a letter from a reader.  The reader had a medical problem and was in a coma for some time.  "You said" the writer stated "That people in a coma can hear and understand everything that goes on around them.  I didn't believe you until it happened to me.  I learned a lot - all of it bad - about what I thought was a loving family.  They shared malicious gossip about me at my bedside and plotted to divide my jewelry.  I recovered, confronted them with what was said, and our relationship is ruined."  

So when Ron got hurt I remembered this, of course.  I measured everything I said to him.  I even wore his favorite "date night" perfume to the hospital every day because I figured the scent might do something words and medicine could not.  I talked to him endlessly.  

At first his family did the cheerleader thing so I didn't worry.  "Take your time" they told him.  

When they left I would tell him "Look they are not giving me any money from the business and I have to pay the rent, wake your ass up!"  I promised I would never lie to him about his condition.  I told him the doctors were saying things looked bad but God hadn't taken him and I had a sign from God (look up my Psalm 72 blog) he would make it.  

The family began malicious gossip at his bedside and talking about how they would place him in a facility when he did wake up.  I took them aside, told them about the Ann Landers letter, BEGGED them to consider what they were saying, and to PLEASE ONLY SAY THINGS YOU'D SAY IF HE WAS AWAKE.  

They didn't listen.  How do I know?  

When Ron came back he, by his own admission, "played dumb" for a week.  He took the time to evaluate everyone around him.  His family, he later related, had engaged in vicious and unrelenting gossip about Ron, me, our relationship, and their plan to dump Ron as soon as legally possible so he could rot in some Medicaid hellhole nursing home.  How his sister said she didn't want to be a butt-wiper.  It did not go well, some months later, when he confronted his parents with this fact and told them "Heather was RIGHT!  I HEARD YOU SAY IT!"  That's when they cut off contact.  

I was amazed at what he knew.  He remembered me saying I would take care of him until he died (which I did), how I said I would always tell him the truth about his condition (I did), and even the fact that Shadow had caught and eaten a dove the day after his accident.  

If someone is in a coma, measure your words VERY carefully.