His mother gave up her job to help him.
Day after day, they practiced with a communication device that let him select words. It took him about a year to get the hang of it.
Then, at last, he could speak. Through a machine, one word at a time.
"I am cold. I am hungry. I want toast."
— Martin Pistorius
His father saw him change, too. "He started moving his eyes and moving his head and almost nodding," Rodney said.
But Martin wanted more than toast. "I wanted to prove that I could do more than just speak words via a laptop."
He got a job filing papers at a government office. He learned to fix computers.
"Repairing a computer is a bit like going into a maze. You might go down dead ends. But eventually, you find your way through."
— Martin Pistorius
He started a web design company. He went to college and studied computer science. He wrote a memoir about his lost years, and called it Ghost Boy.
Then his sister introduced him to a friend of hers. Over Skype.