have a special program for you this weeeek. gratitude for a restoreded career. i spoke recently to o bob woodruff friend and colllleagu from abc news who sufuffered an ininjury in 2006 when a roadadside bomb struck his vehicle whwhen he was on assnment in iraq. he succeeded i in doing both. bob he and his co anchor, were selected to succeed peter jennings in the anchor chair. he h had to relearn how to talk, how toto be a reporter, and is now an advocate fofor others with brai injuries esespecily those in the military. during an interview h he told me whatat his recovery was like.

>> this is the way it generally works. if you are knocked unconious when you wake up and you realize we are live, there is this happen is -- it does not make sense given the fact that you are frustrated, you are in pain, you cannot move. not able to talk as much as i could. you get up and you look around and your family is there. you realize it is a miraculous and you are alive. as time moves on, the frustration really starts to set in. >> six months down the road -- >> i think it goes on for some time. you are not going to be exactly the way you were before. some things in your le are better and some things are

worse. >> what is better? >> first of all, you have gratitude for some of the things that are done for youow. in some ways, more love. you realize this life is pretty short. i think you forgave more people for mistakes and errors and even cruelty sometimes. there are some things about it that are better. real evidence of how much love you do have for you. the ones that do not abandon you early on. if it lasts too long with no cure, it is a different thing. there is a high number off divorces. so if it is not like forever that it is going to be like that. some parts are better. >> you said that the best

medicine in the world is no substitute for the support of your loved ones. you talked about how your loved ones would come talk to you every day, read to you every day, even though you could not respond. >> of course, i do not have any memories because i was unconscious. but my life -- my wife brought my little daughter who is now a freshman in college. back then, she was 12 years old. she walked into tthe room about two weeks before i woke up. i was t reacting or moving my es or lips.. my daughter came in and she whpered in my ear- there is a game called the kissing game. the doctor, the nurse called her in and there was a tear coming

down my eye. >> what did she say to you? >> it was the kissing game. she would call me on the phone in the middle of someplace and i would answer the phone. at the end of every conversation, i would say let's play the kissing game. ready, set go. like that. i wouldet her win all the time. that was the game that we were playing all those years. it was absolutely wonderful. >> talk about the medical advancements. you said you would not have survived if you're injuries happened five years before -- >> i think there are many injuries -- the positive part about the war is medical

adncements at of come along. the flow of the blood when you start to bleed. ouout there when i was hit, the blood was cocoming out of my neck. theyey were able to stopp that a lot faster. second, transporortation. the helicopters they k know exactly ere to take you and how to do the kinds of surgery on new. when they removed my skull these doctors have done like 5 of these that week. these arere doctors that have been doing this foror the entire war so ththey knew exactly what hit me and they knew exactly what to do. if i had not gotten back, i do not know what would've happened. >> what aut hard thing is ahead? what do you still s struggle with? >> what king gabrielle giffords

still expect? >> i think s knows this will not go back 100% the exact way it was before. there are some very positive parts that can happen. it is really unpredictable. i had the speech therapist back when i was going through this and i said what will i be like five years from now? she litally had a little crystal ball on the desk. she said she could not quite see. they do not know exactly how it will change. there has always been this talk that you will level off after about a year, maybe two years during your improvement. the fact is if it keeps going up. i have known people who continue to get their words back.

that is her biggest thing speech. i know many people, 10 or 0 years later they are still seeing improvements. it is been almost six years for me. you can see a big difference. it still goes up. >> you and i were friends. i reintroduce myself to you assuming that you would not remember me. now your memory is better than mine. he remembered me instantly. >> but i probably did not know your name. >> i used to work with you at abc, and you said "of course." i did not expect you to remember because you shared that anecdote of not being able to remember your twins. how is it to feelfehere was that time when you could not even

remember that you had twins. you have a great memory now. >> i used to have a good memory. then it got suddenly very bad. now it does come back. i do have a significant aphphasia s. i still cannot remember a lot of words or names. i know what they're want to say and understand what you are saying but sometimes you cannot remember the word or even you cannot rememember the order of letters in the word that you have the sound of. gabby has the same thing. >> you have always been a smart person. how hard is that? is it frustrating? >> yeah, i think it is. it is not so much that you know yoare frustrated about your knowledge, but your way to

express it. don't forget. we do that as a profession. you cannnnot remember all of the topics. you have to remember the namames. you cannot remember the name of whose campai you are covering. sometimes that kicks in. we are learningbout it more. that is what is really on the rise, how much we know about the brain. you are not the way you were before. i had a photographic memory before, not perfect, but pretty good. >> that w part t 1. bob b woodruff still on top of his game. he also gave advice to mark kelly. when we come backk, how he rebuilt his career.

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> abc news correspondents bob odruff is back on s game a continues to recocoverrom his traumatic brainnjury that he suffered in iraq. we discussed his impressive career comeback. you were the heir apparent of peter jennings. >> maybe i was not meant to be an anchor. >> do you think this is a more meaningful life? >> i think it is a very meaningful life. we have a major commitment, a

foundation to help those who come back injured. one thing i learned early on is the day are not treated with as much attention or health, physical mental, then they should be. we have an all-voluntary military now. less than 1% of the citizens of our country serve which is tiny compared to world war ii or vietnam. whenever they need somebody and know what they have gone through, they want to o do something but it is still very invisible. >> lastly you have a big event tonight. >> you are running this on thursday. >> you do have a better memory

then i do. tell me abo mark kelly. >> mark kelly is a commander. i think you know. it is so great to have a family member who can run at the mission. he is an amazing guy. >> your wiwife is like that as well. >> he is actually really a commander of the shuttle endeavour. he got people up into space. he should be able to deal with how to control the doctors and nurses and the medics. >> what advice did you give e him? >> fairly early on, i had dinner with him and i explained to em what there is -- that there is going to be an improvement kind of forever and it is not very well predictable. there is one thing for sure,

which is there is no scientific proof or medical proof that family members, your kids, your parents, your husband, or your wife will be there with you in your bed that speeds up the recovery. it is not provable, but it is absolutely true. i know it happened with m for sure, i was able to test soone else without a family around them to see what the speed of it was but it is true. i said you are there andhat is going to be the key to this. >> the kissising game. >> the g night we werere referring to was a major fund raiser with brucee springsteen all toto help the boboodrufuff foundation. you can learnore at

remindnd.org. cong upp next, a special

president obama's family spent part of their thanksgiving at the capapital area food bank. for our spotlight on small businesshis weekek lynn branantley preresident and ceo of the capital area food bank. since thanksgiving is one of her busiest weeksks, sat down with her last week to talk about how a nonprofit can succeed even inin recessionary times. lynn brantley, thank you for joining us. id is very important in the washington economy that nonprofit are recognizezed.

talk to us about the business of running the food bank. how have you all managed to continue to do the work? >> it is very challenging. to some degree, it is a business in many ways because your bottom line is service to the community. it is making sure that ur income and expxpenses are lev every month because you have to keep the doors open and the service continuing. my producer called made one of the serious numbers to look at -- donations down 20% in 2011. he said the biggegest drop has been from corporate givers. and even individuals are still giving. >> it is so harard warming because the community is responding. people see what is hpening to their neighbors' homes losing

homes and jobs. so the community has been very responsive. especiallyly during th season. the winter is coming. we will see what happens s in the future. >> here you are talking to us during one of the busieiest times of the yea thanksgiving, and you are providing food to people throughout the region. how do you do more with less because there are morpeople turning to places to provide them with males? >> that is sorue. we did a quick survey -- with less because there are more people turning to places to provide them with meals? >> that is so true. >> what strategies do you employ when your donations are going down and youour demand is going up? >> so far, we hav been able to

keep pace. with some of our agencies,s, they struggle. they mig give fewer backs out or cutut back whahat they put into the bac. finding different ways to make their resources stretched further and further. thus far, we just had a federal food drive. opm got all of the federalal agencies to have a canned food drive and we raised 1 million pounds of food from feral workers alone. that time of -- that typof response is out ere. sothis is a time of year when everyone is responding. >> tell us abouttuff a truck. >> it is a competitor. december 5, and we will be at various stores throughout the

area. we will have a a truck there. the idea is fopeople to bring in their food and cash donations. >> talk to me about somome of the other chaenges you are facing in terms ofof the things that are more difficult in a recession. for example, distribution. gasoline alone must be impacting do. we do 30 million pounds of food that go out into the community. of that 30 million, 15 million is fresh produce. that is very hard for us because in the past severamonths, it has gone up 30% in termof our cost. that is struggle. one of the things that are low inincome neighborhoods do not have enough of is fre produce and good, wholesome food. >> how do you face these kinds

of seemingly insurmountable odds? >> i think it is the faith that i have and the fact that i see the community respond in smany ways. amazing people that the stepped up to the plate. every time i think a window is shedding, a door opens. it keeps you going. all of the amazing people at our agencies. people who are there consistently to make ts community a better place. >> that is a great way to end our spotlight on small-business the national capital area food bank. appreciate your work. thank you for joining us. >> we will be right back with our number of the week after this.

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welcome back. our number of the week comes from forbes magazine. virginia has come i seconin the 11 list right behind you top. -- behind utah. once again, maryland is a little bit lower, and 19th ts year.

the best qualities or quality of life economic environment, and labor supply. that is all for us forhis spececial thanksgiving week. have a great weekend. i hope t to seeee you back here next week hey... there's mom! hey, let mom try. ready, go! ♪ ♪ yeah, rock on, mom! [ male announcer ] sometimes a hint is all the wrapping a gift needs. wait a minute...i... [ laughs ] [ male announcer ] the lexus december to remember sales event is here, but only for a limitetime. see your lexus dealer or exclusive lease offers on the 2012 rx 350 and, as a gift from lexus we'll make your first month's payment.

"this week" -- what now? the supercommittee comes up empty. >> there will be no easy off-ramps on this one. we need to keep the pressure up to compromise. >> democrats and republicans retrench as budget cuts loom. our