A Stroke Survivor Story: Part II
As Stroke Awareness Month comes to a close, I have another story to share. I wanted to share this story when it happened, but my daddy had just had his stroke and we weren’t ready to tell everyone what was going on and what we were dealing with.
Sunday January 22, 2024
By this day, daddy had been in the hospital for a week following the big stroke. He’d turned 73, having to lay flat in the hospital bed. Mom and I were certainly hopeful and prayerful but the truth I kept from people who were checking on him was that I was in despair. It was hard seeing him the way he was, and in a week’s time, he seemed to get worse. I feared the road ahead and what it meant for him and what it meant for my mom.
Days were long sitting in the hospital because we couldn’t communicate with daddy. He would stare at us lovingly at times like he was content to have us there. Then there were the more intense stares when he wanted to tell us something and we had to play the guessing game. Then the most intense stare was when he was ready for us to leave and we kind of knew that’s what he wanted but we wouldn’t present him with the question, “Are you ready for us to leave?” until we had exhausted all other possibilities.
On this night we were watching football, Kansas City vs Buffalo. Mom and I are more vocal football watchers. Even if he COULD talk during a game he just doesn’t. He’s a calm football watcher. Mom and I are not. So when he flung up his arm after a touchdown, it was my thought that he was saying, “It’s about time!” like I was, but he’d flung up his arm to tell me and mom that it was time for us to go.
A few hours later….
It was a very cold day/night. So cold that we had to make the evening preparations so the pipes wouldn’t freeze. I got in the shower and it was taking longer than normal to warm up. As I realized it wasn’t warming up at all, I was quick about it and got out shivering. It’s times like this that you don’t need to deal with anything other than the crisis you’re having but the other shoe dropped. We turned on the water from different faucets and the cold water never got hot. Sigh.
My mom remembered that she’d saved the recommendation for Rob “just in case”. So she called him first thing Monday morning. He left immediately and came out before his first appointment to assess what was going on. The bottom line, Mom needed a new hot water heater and that was that.
I came in the garage a few minutes after he arrived because I could hear there was a lot of discussion. He had just started to share that he was a stroke survivor and he was back to work doing this thing. He talked to us for a while, telling us about the long road ahead but encouraging us by letting us know that if daddy was determined and put the work in, he would be back to himself in no time. We are certainly seeing that now!
So Rob was back later that morning after I dropped my mom off at the hospital. After he had the hot water heater installed, he discovered another problem under the house. He asked me to come out and look under the house with him. There was so much water under the house, and frozen in patches. I almost cried. I remember telling him to be careful as he waded through shining his flashlight here and there. He hadn’t yet checked to see if it was something he could fix but he just wanted me to know he was going to be there a little longer. I said, “I can’t tell my mom about this right now.”
I went back in the house. A little while later I heard a knock at the back door and opened it. Rob in his New Jersey accent said, “I took care of it.” He said, “I don’t want to put anymore stress on your mom so I took care of it. Boom Boom Boom.” He had what he needed and the heart to get it done.
I went back in the house and grabbed a gift I was going to give to daddy for his birthday, but then he had the second stroke and the shirt was not something he could have appreciated at the time.
I went outside with the shirt and told Rob the same, and said I’ll get my daddy another shirt when he’s better, but I want you to have this one. I unwrapped it from the packaging and held it up so he could read it.
I’M A
STROKE
Survivor
WHAT’S YOUR
SUPERPOWER
He said, “Are you serious right now?” His appreciation made me cry and he got emotional himself telling me how much it meant to him as he gave me a big hug. He shared a little more of his story telling me about his plans to go fishing the day he had his stroke. He told me about his trophy room and said that he was going to hang his shirt in there.
After I took his picture, he asked me to text it to him so he could show his wife. Later that day he texted me back with a picture of his trophy wall, telling me again that it really meant a lot to him.
Just days earlier, I had tried to return the shirt to Amazon. It had arrived a day late after daddy’s birthday, and I already decided I wouldn’t give it to him and couldn’t imagine a day when I could. I got an immediate response from Amazon that said, “We’ve refunded your card. No need to return the item.”
Which I then immediately burst in to tears.
After meeting Rob, I was happy that I still had the shirt and knew then that it was meant for him.
