November 21-25 (The Stroke)

We are not sure when the stroke happened. The last time anyone saw Dad in person was the morning of Saturday, November 21. The stroke could have been that night or the next morning, or any time before Tuesday, the 24th, when he was found at home on his bedroom floor. He had fallen and hit his head on a heavy wooden chair that was sitting next to the bed. Luckily Dad's siblings were watching out for him, or he could have laid there even longer. The ambulance was called around 11:00 AM on Tuesday, and Dad was taken to the Plentywood Hospital.

Dad spent a few days in the hospital before I (Wendy) was able to get up there. My family and I arrived Saturday night after a 2-day trip in the car from Utah. The first night I saw him, I was shocked. After having talked to him on the phone, where he had sounded weak but fairly himself, it was disheartening to see that his neck was cranked all the way around to the right, he had zero movement in his left side, and he could barely stay awake long enough to answer a short question. He had no ability to see anything or hear anything on his left side and could not turn his neck far from the cranked position it lay in. Mostly, his weakness and tiredness left me scared that he might never be able to be himself again.