Valentines from the Stroke Comeback Center (1 - Jerry's story):
Jerry Shrouds built a bridge to love after a stroke that
could have ended everything.
Jerry and Franda met when he was a UPS driver delivering
packages to her office at the DMV. “He is the one,” she told herself from the
start. Before long, they moved in together with Jerry’s two sons from his first
marriage. “It was exciting,” Franda says.
They had been
together for more than a year when Jerry suffered a devastating stroke. He
couldn’t walk, couldn’t talk. In an instant, they faced a challenge that can be
too much for some couples. Luckily, a friend told them about the StrokeComeback Center.
With physical
therapy, Jerry had gotten back on his feet. Although his
speech was severely limited. Just about all he could say, he recalls, was,
“Yeah! No! Yeah! No!” Working with the Stroke Comeback Center’s caring
professionals, words began to return.
He could talk to the
kids again. “Ball or baseball. I talk in sentences or words,” he says. Most
important: “I love you.”
A year and a half later, the family had a happier challenge.
Franda gave birth to a baby girl. Less than a year after that, she had a boy.
Now Jerry was a stay-at-home dad. He could even change a diaper and dress the
baby with one hand.
Life was good, but
Jerry knew there was one more thing that could make it better. He recalls the
day he made it happen.
They were driving
home from his parents’ house, Franda at the wheel. Jerry reached into his
pocket, feeling the cool metal of the ring and the piece of paper. He was
afraid to wait any longer, afraid he would lose the ring. He pulled them out of
his pocket.
“Oh, my god!” Franda said. “Why are you doing this right
now, while I’m driving?”
He tried to read the
note but, like many a man in his situation, he was tongue-tied. He handed it to
her.
The note said, “Will
you marry me?”
Written By Gwen Flanders
(Editor USA Today, caregiver and longtime friend of Stroke Comeback Center)
