Stories

At first, his high school days went smoothly. Studies went all right. Life for Andy was full of typical high school activities including dating, cars, and of course more sports, sports big time. He made first string positions on the baseball team, the football team and the basketball team. And to his delight, a baseball scout offered him a scholarship.

Andy was a good pitcher. But in one game, he hurt his arm so severely that his prospective baseball career came to an abrupt end.

Out of school, trying to make up for his disappointments, Andy became a workaholic holding down three jobs. His fatigue and high blood pressure failed to slow him down. Andy now says, “from the time I was nineteen till I was thirty five when I had my stroke, I was continuously partially drunk or high on different street drugs.” His stroke left Andy paralyzed on his left side.

Through physical therapy, determination and learning to live with his reality, Andy now lives a full life. He is thankful that our Bridge of Hope effort has been able to assist him in many ways including helping him to realize his goal of getting out of a nursing home into an independent living situation.

While never being fond of academic endeavors as a youth, he is now deeply involved in creative writing including writing his autobiography. It is a joy to see how much pleasure Andy gets out of his writing.

Kathy keeps very busy. She has a sheriff friend who frequently drives her from the nursing home to different grade schools where she shares her story with students. Kathy says, “my great joy is doing all I can to make a positive difference in the lives of children. I tell them how being on drugs caused my accident and how that robbed me of so much. I want to save them from making the mistake I did of using drugs.”

Kathyâs father was a nuclear physicist and her mother owned an art gallery. She excelled in high school and graduated early. She loved animals as a youth and that led to her involvement with riding and showing horses. She also became a co-owner of several dog training clinics. For a number of years before her accident she worked as a professional deep sea sunken treasure diver with a world famous ocean archaeologist treasure hunter. She was involved in establishing three different Marine Sunken Treasure Museums.

Our family of nursing home resident friends comes from all walks of life. Whether they have been house wives, lawyers, pilots, physicians, university professors, carpenters or whatever, each are unique, interesting and valuable individuals. What a joy and privilege it is to share with these wonderful people!

After graduation, his headaches prevented him from going to college or working full time.

In 1985, at the age of twenty five, after more severe headaches and the onset of epilepsy, Drew was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor.

While living in a nursing home, Drew grew increasingly frustrated over wanting to live independently. Through the help of The Bridge of Hope Foundation, Drew finally realized his dream of living independently.

Drew is much happier in his new situation. With the help of a social worker who calls on him weekly, he is now able to do many things on his own. He now reads books, goes to movies and the library, shops and does volunteer work at his church.

As a reservist, Frank was called to serve in the Vietnam war. While serving our country in the capacity of a soldier, Frank was shot by a sniper and severely wounded. He was also subjected to Agent Orange and now has M.S..

Art and painting continue to play a major role in Frank’s life. In his small nursing home room, Frank spends many hours painting various subjects. One rewarding Bridge of Hope project was that of helping Frank frame and place some of his art work in a local Cafe.

Frank says, “whether on the battle field in Viet Nam or here in the nursing home where I battle with my frustration and sadness, I find that my faith in God gives me the strength I need. See my paintings on my room wall? They express my love for God, for people and life. I spend hours many days looking out my window at the trees and birds. I like to share bread crumbs with the birds. I have a lot to be thankful for.”

Like other nursing home friends, Frank is like a loved family member.

Then, something happened that ended the “good life” he had enjoyed for many years. He fell off of a roof and landed on a pile of bricks. His back was broken and ever since then, he has needed to use a wheelchair. Shortly after this incident, he was forced to move into a nursing home.

Denis says, “For at least two years after my accident, I was angry at God and wanted to die. Then one day, I turned my thinking around. I now am thankful for all the good things I have and I now praise God in my heart.”

Part of Denisâs healing process came out of his discovered writing ability. He started writing and has never stopped. Denis is the nursing home journalist. He writes uplifting, faith building poetry and stories about many aspects of life and distributes his word pictures to residents and others to encourage them. He also is a good verbal story teller and has a great sense of humor.