That’s the first word James Avery said after he came out of what doctors had called a persistent vegetative state, according to this moving Boston Globe article from yesterday. His family had decided he was suffering too much and had taken him off his ventilator, but–despite all expectations–he breathed on his own. He is now severely disabled, but roars with laughter at jokes. The piece includes reports on two other cases, also involving tragic accidents. Collen Soroka, in a coma, breathed when they took her off her respirator and woke up a few days later. She recently “danced” in her wheelchair at her brother’s wedding. Her sister says: “Every day she wakes up is a battle. But it’s better than her not being here.” Indeed, it would be a mistake to sugarcoat these cases. They represent awful, wrenching tragedies (and the third case involves a brain-damaged 41-year old, injured when he was 17 in a car accident, who says he wished he had died). But such is the power of love that something redeeming can be found even in this kind of terrible pain and loss.