Name: Helen Peckham
Story / suggestion: My Husband “Nick” suffered a Stroke in October 2021. He was only 53 years young and it happened at 4am in the morning. Luckily I could recognise a stroke and called the ambulance straight away, It was during COVID so couldn’t go with him and was told to wait for a few hours then call the hospital. As soulmates this was the most difficult moment in our lives as we both thought we would never see each other again.
I got to the hospital with our eldest son Joe to see him at 2pm. He was paralysed down the left side and so badly bruised from the injury he sustained when he fell off the toilet and into the heated towel radiator.
We defied the COVID rules at hospital to help him recover. Nick also defied the rules as he just was so motivated to get better and come home. Being apart from each other was torture. Nick would get told off if the nurses found him in his chair and dressed in the morning. He couldn’t speak very well to start with and the voice messages I had were often garbled but were usually to say how much he loved me and couldn’t wait to be home.
Whilst he was in hospital he saw the Angels Michael and Gabriel watching over people who were very poorly, he knew they weren’t there for him but felt comforted by them.
When he got to the rehabilitation unit again he was defying the rules and said he wanted to be home by the end of the weeks. He went through intensive physio daily and was given lots of exercises like stacking cups and holding and moving things to help his dexterity, they got him walking again so that he could come home. All he could think about was making it home so he could make me a cup of tea in the morning and bring it to me in bed (something he always does).
After a total of 6 weeks in hospital and rehab. He got home in time to attend our first granddaughters 1st birthday and he was standing and walking with a stick by this time.
He got stronger everyday and would bring me a cup of tea by putting it on the stairs and moving it up one step at a time, both the mug of tea and himself. He was so proud.
Since then he has focussed on relearning so many things and has gone from strength to strength where he is now 3 years on – driving and working, he loves taking photos and also restoring old photographs digitally so he’s beginning to get back into this as well. We walk a lot, especially on the beach and up the river (coombe haven nature park)
IMAGE: By Factorylad – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3876745