So This is Our Story: A story of a Dad and a stroke. The above photo epitomises our father, his sparkling blue eyes and a smile that lights up a room that is infectious to all. He is a very much beloved husband, grandfather, friend and most of all our cherished father.

On 29 September 2016, in a blink of an eye our close knit family was ripped to shreds by a stroke, a stroke that took down our 59 year old father that blindsided us all, which has now changed everything for our parents.

For weeks our father was in the Intensive Care Unit ventilated with leads coming out of him and we all waited with anticipation and praying he would wake up the same old father, but that never happened.

Dad woke but without movement to his right arm and leg, unable to sit up, unable to walk, not able to talk or eat, our once strong father who looked after everyone in our family was now weak and needed us to help him. We placed photos around his room to remind him how much he was loved, we asked him repetitive questions, who am I, where do you live, do you know where you are. Some days he mumbled them correctly other days he got them confused or wrong. However, we persevered waiting for our Dad to come through and bit-by-bit we would see glimmers of our old Dad.

In just 3 months, since Dad had his stroke, he has had pneumonia, a mild heart attack and is now requiring surgery to fix his broken hip after falling from his wheelchair, however our Dad is a fighter and we know he will try again to move forward, he may not be the same old Dad that we are use too, but he is our Dad and we love him to bits and he will be the same old new dad.

Our Dad was the most hardworking tradie we knew, and he would go out of his way for so many, he is a very loving and thoughtful husband to our beautiful mother, whom he absolutely loves; they are true soul mates, which is evident when you are in their presence.

Our family is never one to ask for help, my parents are way too proud for that but there comes a time when help is exactly what you need. The main reason we are asking our community for their assistance to support our parents in this extremely trying time is because my parents need it more than ever, as they have a long road ahead of them with so many expenses and modifications to be undertaken.

Our father operated his own Floor Sanding business 'Whats Woody Floor Sanding', however like many others he thought he had many years to prepare for retirement, however this isn’t to be and now my parents need assistance. My mother will be giving up full time work (Retail Assistant) to care for my father and unfortunately there is limited finances to assist my parents. My sister and I are giving and doing all that we can but it won’t be nearly enough for the years ahead of them.

We are hoping that any support that the community can provide to my parents to assist them to install a ramp, home modifications for a wheelchair, car modification (new used car), equipment requirements, physiotherapy, speech therapy and more additional rehabilitation services would be sincerely appreciated. Every dollar helps and is greatly appreciated.

If you are unable to donate, could you kindly share this GoFundMe with your community and send a bit of sunshine our way. Thank you from two daughters that love their parents.