HOW MANY BLINKS FOR "DON'T FOLLOW THROUGH ON THE LIVING WILL YOU SON OF A ..." (via The Other Brother):

Woman silent for 20 years calls to say `Hi, Mom' (Associated Press, February 13, 2005)

Sarah Scantlin was an 18-year-old college freshman on Sept. 22, 1984, when she was hit by a drunken driver as she walked to her car after celebrating with friends at a teen club.

Since then she has been mostly oblivious to the world around her, able only to blink her eyes to respond to questions no one knew for sure she understood.

But a week ago, her parents got a call from Jennifer Trammell, a licensed nurse at the Golden Plains Healthcare Center. Trammell asked Betsy Scantlin if she was sitting down, told her someone wanted to talk to her and switched the phone to speaker mode:

"Hi, Mom."

"Sarah, is that you?" her mother asked.

"Yes," came the throaty reply.

"How are you doing?"

"Fine."

"Do you need anything?" her mother asked her later.

"More makeup."

"Did she just say more makeup?" Scantlin's mother asked the nurse.

Scantlin started talking in mid-January but asked staff members not to tell her parents until Valentine's Day, Trammell said. But last week she could not wait any longer to talk to them.

The breakthrough came when the nursing home's activity director was working with Scantlin and a few other patients, trying to get them to speak. After another patient said "OK," Scantlin repeated: "OK. OK."