Godspeed your wife's recovery! And a cool story about the youngsters. Having worked as a teacher for kids aged 12-16 for many years, I know there is hope for mankind (not necessarily because of my teaching, though...).
I used to teach English to this 14 year-old kid who worshipped Randy Rhoads. His band practiced at school, so I got to hear them play "Crazy Train" a couple of times. Very talented guys. Then about a year ago the same kid pops up on the Facebook page of my local music store. He'd just bought a real nice guitar and was absolutely beaming with joy. It made my day seeing that he had kept at it.