On Sunday February 23rd, what should have been a normal day of baseball and watching movies turned into one of the biggest struggles our family would face. My dad, Eric Dieffenbach, had a stroke in our living room. After being rushed to the hospital with the right side of his body not working, the tests came back that my dad had a stroke affecting the left side of his brain. If anyone knows my dad, he is a very active family man and hard worker. He had been working hard and recently started a new job/promotion at work. My dad was excited about this new position that would allow him to travel all over the northeast. Also, he was looking forward to helping me go off to college, watch Alex play baseball, and coach for our towns Babe Ruth league.

Now my dad had to put those things on hold to make sense of what happened and get better for our family. He is in a rehab facility and has made huge progress with walking and regaining his strength. However, there will be many follow up therapy appointments, different specialties taking care of him and many medications.

My mom is now out of work along with my dad to help him recover. This could be a minimum of a 4 to 6 month recovery. Anything given is a tremendous help to take the stress off of my family at a time of need and pain. Currently, my dad is in good spirits and is staying positive about his unfortunate condition.