(editor's note: This article was written in late February, 2003, three weeks after the explosion.)
James "Red" Edwards Sr. leans over his son Jim and gently offers him a drink. The son nods his head and sips from a straw.
But Jim is exhausted after his afternoon regimen of physical therapy. He lets his head collapse on the pillow and closes his eyes, as if to forget about where he is.
The younger Edwards would probably like to forget about being at the N.C. Jaycee Burn Center at UNC Hospitals, forget about the fire and explosion at the pharmaceutical plant on Jan. 29 that forever changed his life.
Edwards, 46, is the only remaining patient at the burn center from the original 10 who arrived in the hours following the explosion in Kinston. He was among the most critically injured at West Pharmaceuticals, with burns covering 62 percent of his body.
When Gov. Mike Easley visited the center three weeks later, Edwards was on the verge of death. A blood infection, sepsis, had shut down his kidneys and his adrenal glands, and he had pneumonia.
"He turned out to be a very sick boy for that period, for about a week," Red Edwards said. "Without the Lord's intervening, I think that he would have been gone."
Since then, Jim Edwards' condition has been improving, although there have been setbacks.
"A short time after everything started coming back together, we found out he was blind," the father said. "And that's really a blow to the belt. They think that, when the sepsis was there, and the blood pressure got so low, that he possibly didn't get enough oxygen to the optic nerve. They have not confirmed this."
The condition now appears permanent, Red Edwards explained. "They don't give me any hope," he said. "[But] I have hope. I know the one who gave him sight originally can restore it. Since we don't know where it came from, what caused it, I have hope in that. As I told my son, 'We're in this thing, and whatever we've got, we've got, and we'll deal with it and we'll go forward.' I thank the Lord that he's spared, that I have a son I can talk to, that I can love, and that can love me, and that means the world to me."
In addition to the blindness, the younger Edwards also has difficulty speaking because a ventilator was in his throat for such a long time.
But otherwise, Jim Edwards is improving. His skin grafts are healing, for one.
"He's got six or seven places on his body that's still an open wound," Red Edwards said, "but they're small, and they're healing, and they probably won't need [any more] grafting, I'm hoping."
Since the completion of the grafting, and the reduced threat of infection, progress has accelerated. But Jim Edwards' movements are still painful and require therapy.
"Every joint he has is limited as to its movement," his father said. "For example, he can't move his fingers much. He lay so long in one place that they froze."
The son cannot walk without assistance. His right foot is angled down and inward. Every three days, he gets a new cast that straightens his foot slightly so that eventually he will be able to walk unassisted. It is a long and painful process, involving daily sessions of grueling physical therapy, but eventually, Jim Edwards should regain some mobility.
"I expect him to have back everything that he had," Red said, "with the exception of his sight, at some point down the road. As far as all his movements, I expect him to have it all. It's going to be a long, hard journey, but it's possible from what I've been told."
Red Edwards' sympathy and concern for his son consume his life. The father splits his time between Kinston and Chapel Hill. He tries to be with his son as much as possible.
"It's quite a different life than I had planned," he said. "It is what it is, and that's what we're working with. I told Jim this morning, 'The Lord chose to leave you with us for a reason, and I don't know what that reason is, but it isn't for you to be in bad shape and for you to hurt and to be in misery the rest of your life. It's not that.'
"I said, 'He's got something good for you and I don't know what it is, but we're going to find out, and we're going to enjoy our time together.' "
Doctors are planning to keep the younger Edwards at the burn center until his range of movement returns to the point where he can walk and function more independently. The timetable is uncertain, since it depends on his rate of progress. But the family has been told it will be several more weeks.
"He's had all this major stuff to deal with from the beginning," Red Edwards said. "This is one reason I've stuck so close, and his mother has stuck so close. His mother and I have been divorced 40-some years, but we get along really well, and I'm glad we do, considering what we're having to deal with. We try to make sure that always one of us is here."