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Steve and I were married in nineteen seventy-two we have two sons
and how we have always been very very active as a family and a couple
I set the county record, in bowling
December the
eighteenth, in 1988
When Steve became ill
a lot of that came to a halt
he has Medication Induced Parkinson's from taking the wrong medication
He couldn't walk
so he's going to have to have some sort of help
in order to get through the day
in the last year
watching someone that was
a very strong, healthy person
loose
the ability to do the things
that he love to do most and then watching the depression set in
on him
as his wife and friend it was very difficult.
She suddenly had a husband that she had been married
to forever
that
couldn't stay home by himself. At that time
I could see that he was going to have a lot of challenges in his
activities of daily living.
The first day he was not going
he gets up and he says to me
I'm not going!
She pulled up out front,
I went out to meet them and greet them
and my heart stopped a little bit.
He was in a wheelchair and he
didn't transfer very well
he didn't rise out of a chair well. He didn't walk hardly at all.
and I'm sure at his young of age
he never dreamt
he would be experiencing
what he was experiencing and be where he was at. So Steve wasn't in the best of spirits to say the least
when he came into the program. I mean I hated it
I felt like I was being baby sit.
He gets there and the first thing they do is they take the little things off
foot rests off the wheelchair
and they make and use his legs to walk with
I told him you are young and you need to be working at this
and getting your mobility back. You need to be an independent individual. They did
exercise, and I said what
in the world. These little old ladies
and stuff like that, they were
jumping around, and I couldn't get out of this wheelchair.
They hadn't had anybody as big as me, and they had a
heck of a time
So we actually physically had to help him learn to move his legs
in order to propelled wheelchair
so just by the end of that first day when Gerri came to get him
he propelled himself to the door
and to the car in his wheelchair. So
we knew at that point that this man had some determination.
I told them that I would give them a week,
by the time the week had run out I liked it.
By the beginning of the following week
so he had only been with us for five days he kept working on that.
He pulls up to the front of the building
and goes to get out of the car and he's got a walker,
and we were like
blown away
and so excited for him!
I felt great, I felt like I conquered the world
Without them I don't know that he would have gotten well
because there's no way he could've been home by himself.
And don't play bingo with the girls. Them little old women they
tickle me to death.
The other participants love him, they call him big daddy.
It's it's like a family, and
it's just wonderful.
His whole life has just changed
so he's not home
by himself
and depressed. Steve now walks independently and
gets around and he has his full sense of humor back, let me tell ya. I feel 100%, 100% better.
He's taught all of us that work there about the true determination of life and how to battle challenges, that were
faced each day. With
grace and a lot of faith in God.
And a lot of love for other people