Fun with RVin’

Who would ever have believed!

I was commuting to the RV dealership from Union City to Gilroy five days a week. An hour and a half commute no time for anything else it seemed. Then in December, 2016, I planned on working less. I cut my shifts down to three days a week. My boss said that I couldn’t sell motor homes part-time but I could teach people how to use their motorhomes when they bought from one of the other salespeople. There were 35 salespeople so there was no issue as far as getting hours to work. I said okay and it turned out to be the best decision of my life.
We had a great summer in 2017, camping, seeing my grandchild who was now two years old, visiting my kids, and getting to spend quality time with my wife and my mother-in-law. I even got a chance to play my guitar and my piano quite regularly. I enjoyed playing with my kayak and time with my little dog. Cathy and I took my mother-in-law with us to my daughter’s house in Santa Barbara to join in with the fun, week long, Fiesta Days. At one event, my mother-in-law, 96 years old, ended up on stage, dancing with the devil. She got such a kick out of that.
On August 14 2017, I took the kayak out on Quarry Lake. After that – I finished putting together my kayak trailer and went and got the license at the DMV.

The next morning, August 15, 2017 at 6 AM, I had a massive stroke.

I was in bed. Had I been on the lake nobody would ever found me in time.
When I woke up my entire left side was paralyzed and I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t really breathe or swallow without a lot of effort. I soon realized that I could “think” but little else. I remember saying a little prayer – God please let me remember my stories. Thinking that maybe, God willing, now I would have time to write them down. Maybe there IS a book inside of me.

In the early days of my recovery, in addition to five days a week of PT (physical therapy) OT (occupational therapy – how to dress myself, how to go to the bathroom) and speech therapy. I also watched TV. There were several massive earthquakes in Mexico followed by three huge hurricanes in Florida and two devastating fires in California. Maybe that’s why I didn’t feel sorry for myself. As I lay in my hospital bed, several people were admitted who had been evacuated from other hospitals that were in the fire zone. I figured there were many people that were going through what I was going through in addition to dealing with fires, floods, hurricanes and earthquakes.

In December 2017 I learned about a computer writing program called Dragon. It takes my voice and translates it to text. Because of my speech therapy it to translate my voice. By April, 2018 – it still makes mistakes because I can’t pronounce every word correctly. Some days I can spend my whole day writing and editing and lose it before I finished. It has taken a village to master the program. Both my computer guru and speech therapist helped immensely.
All my loving family came to the hospitals frequently, Cathy slept in my private rooms on a cot 3 nights a week. My brothers, Cathy’s family, including her mother, our daughters, sons-in-law, and sweet little 2year old grandson, who named me “Papa”, all brought support and laughter to me. My little dog was allowed to visit all through my 2 months at the last rehab place.
The last place my mother-in-law had on her “bucket list” for years, was The Mall of America, in Minneapolis. She wanted to see this enormous mall with shopping, dining, that also has an amusement park, movies and live stage shows, and a huge aquarium. Cathy and her sister surprised her with the trip. Cathy had to cancel her reservations because of me needing her after my stroke, but her sister and mom had a great time and took breaks across the street in their hotel room, but after all, she was 96!
Soon after my mother-in-law got back from her adventure to The Mall of America, she was diagnosed with Stage IV bone cancer and had just of a few short weeks to live. It was devastating to Cathy, her sister, and me too. I loved that woman. Her deepest wish was to last long enough for our annual Family Christmas Party. So, the whole family decorated her house with all her special lights, decorations, and big tree, which delighted her every day. We also moved the party to 3 weeks early. So, she had fun with her 2 daughters, 2 sons-in-law, 4 granddaughters and husbands, and 2 great-grandsons, age 1 and 2 years. I had just been discharged from my last 2 months of rehab so I was able to be there too, which made both of us cry. Doris Peterson died just two weeks before Christmas.