On July 29, 2025 David and I celebrated our 20th anniversary of meeting. It was seemingly a milestone that we honestly were talking about for a year or more.

Although we had a great time, the following days would prove to be the emotional roller coaster I never wanted to experience! We survived a car accident that day . I asked him “what does this mean? Of all days..” He said to me “Our love can survive anything!” I was amazed at the genuine love in his eyes and the sentiment of those words.. Because our marriage had been struggling for years. I would soon find out it was a sentence that would echo in my mind every second of every day.

That day we walked away from what could been a fatal car accident unscratched… only to walk away from each other a few days later. We broke up for what seemed like the final time. We both said some pretty awful things to each other. I decided that no matter how much I wished for our marriage to be different. I could no longer continue to live in limbo. I hated it. Yet we parted ways and I pretended to be okay. For once , I was making a choice for me. Soon I started to wonder.. did I make the right choice?

I wanted to go check on him because he always got over things fairly fast and would call me to make up. Not this time. I started to text him and before I knew it I had written a message so profound, so very full of hope, I poured my heart into it and I sent it without hesitation. The sun went down the rose again… still nothing from him. I felt in the very core of my being, and with every beat of my heart, something was wrong. Very very wrong. It started to rain and in the pouring down rain I left to go find him. I got into my truck and started driving then my phone rang. I just knew that had to be him. It was his daughter, Casey. I will never forget hearing the words that came from her. Everything, including the rain stood still!! I was in complete shock. I’ve felt this panic once before. I rushed to the hospital and I tried so very hard to keep my composure and to not let my thoughts run wild. I went to the 8th floor to ICU. I found him but the person saw in front of me.. that couldn’t be him. He was on life support. He was completely unconscious not even breathing on his own. Nooo wayyyy! The agony I felt brought me to my knees. Sobbing in disbelief I felt a excruciating amount of pain in my heart. I had to be dreaming. What happened to him?? How could this be? Questions ran through my mind and then I heard his voice say.. “Our love can survive anything.”

I never in a million years would be prepared for the days ahead. I stayed by his side telling him how I was sorry for leaving and kept telling him he would be okay. He had to be.

Rhabdomyolysis.

A serious condition caused by a direct or indirect muscle injury. It happens when muscle fibers die and release their contents into your bloodstream. This can lead to serious complications such as renal failure.

He had what is called crush injury near his gallbladder. The day after the accident he began to complain of back pain. Never really telling me just how much. As the days went on he became very ill yet I was not with him much so I really didn’t know how sick he had become. He finally collapsed from acute gallbladder failure with dehydration and sepsis set in. He was barely breathing and unresponsive. Little did I know he was not expected to survive. I believe with my whole heart he wouldn’t have had I not been there with him breathing life into his heart again. With every tear and every word I spoke to him I felt our love growing stronger. I held his hand and slept beside him in a chair. Night after night I watched the rain. Every morning when the sun came up and so a new obstacle for him to overcome. I just kept telling him.. “Our love can survive anything!” And it did; it survived everything the universe threw at you!

1. Stress related cardiomyopathy aka broken heart syndrome.

2. Right MCA ischemic stroke

3. Brain swelling

4. Left hemiparesis (paralysis on left side of entire body).

5. Air pathways collapsing from ventilation even though it was originally placed to protect those same air pathways.

6. Damaged vocal cords as well.

7. Feeding tube placement

8. Which caused some internal bleeding so taken off blood thinners.

9. Which caused him to have some blood clotting in his arms that had been restrained until two days ago.

9.b. Also the internal bleeding was accidentally caught because of the drain tube dislodging from the gallbladder and ending up behind the stomach, where the bleeding was coming from, so blood was found in the drain which inspired a whole day worth of tests and such to determine what happened with that

9.c. Gallbladder tube could not be replaced and new gallbladder tube would have caused too much scar tissue therefore gallbladder finally was removed however, I was unaware they did it until week later.

10. Tracheostomy performed with tube placement for ventilation via trach. Because air pathways and vocal cords needed to heal, therefore the ventilator via mouth had to be removed. Also, why the feeding tube was necessary.

11. Double pneumonia.

12. Jaundice due to liver response without gallbladder, but quickly reversed itself.

13. Worst ever thrush I have seen.

His body literally was shutting down and quite literally he fought death from taking him almost every day for 18 days. When he finally woke up only to find himself paralyzed and tubes coming out of everywhere! As you would imagine he was very much shocked and confused. With the type of stroke he had he remained confused as his short term memory is almost non existent.

After Transfer to Rehabilitation Hospital more cognitive issues arise as he become more conscious..

14 Short term memory loss.

15. Dysphasia.

16. Confusion

17. Emotional regulation not present with mild depression.

He has overcome a tremendous set of obstacles as he still struggles daily, just to remember the alphabet. He is mostly unaware that he is incapable of walking, and so the frustration of being restrained to a bed when normally he is a very active person is tough on him. It is also tough to watch him struggle with that emotionally. Every day, I notice improvement in many ways.

He is breathing on his own, eating and talking. Although so far the paralysis is still an issue but it is slowly improving. It is still unknown if he will completely regain use of this left side of his body. I am hopeful and believe he most definitely will but that is my optimistic expectation. He is a strong willed man and I will tell him everyday “Our love can survive anything!” until he remembers and gets himself back!!

Our life is dramatically going to be different. His battle for normalcy is just beginning. Its been more than a month ago that he was rushed in an ambulance to the emergency room. In that short amount of time we have already noticed a huge loss of income as I cannot keep up with all of our jobs without him. Going forward until he completely recovers, which I am certain he will at some point, but it could take up to a year or more for that to happen. Financially, we are already struggling, but now I just don’t know how or if I can make things work for us by myself. I will continue to have faith and remind myself “Our love can survive anything!” I will never stop trying to make our lives better.

Once he is able to come home, we don’t know where we will go. Where we were living prior is not an option due to the toxic environment it has become which is a big reason I left prior to this incident and David 1000% wanted out of there. Recently finding out that the day he collapsed he was removed from his room by the “landlord”, someone he considered his friend, and was staged outside as if he was found there. As if he heroically happened upon him . Unexplainably, he also cleared out his room the next day and refuses to allow me to pick up even just his clothing. He has nothing to wear and none of his personal items. He lived at this residence for 3 years and was never asked to move nor was he legally evicted. However the so called “landlord” opportunistically decided to pilfer through David’s whole life. Keeping what he wanted and who knows what happened to the rest as he will not allow me access. However when I went there another tenant was in the driveway cleaning our refrigerator and other items of ours. Even our Christmas decorations that included our children/grandchildren’s Christmas ornaments and stockings. There are many things that are sentimental but also we can’t afford to replace everything and shouldn’t have to. He has been through so much only to wake up to this unbelievably callous behavior. Although also a tremendous blessing in disguise!!

With that said he will be recovering for at least a year and will possibly require ongoing care until he is fully recovered and healed from this horrible ordeal. We now need to move suddenly and also replace everything from clothes to sheets, shoes to cosmetics, household items and personal items, auto mechanic tools, his bike, art supplies for painting, cleaning supplies and equipment, granite tabletop and other furniture/appliances. Literally everything we had. This is just unreal the blatant disregard for his life, the capacity to be emotionally abusive to someone going through such a difficult ordeal, without David to speak up for me the cooperation will never be.

All I want is for my husband to be able to continue to have a safe place and hopefully a quality of life conducive to heal. We will keep moving forward one way or the other. However I am requesting any help we might be able to obtain so that we can have some peace of mind to have a home to go to and be safe and sound together.

Thank you so very much for your continued love, prayers, good vibes and support as we navigate through these challenging chapters of our journey.