Dear readers, you might wonder why I started writing again last week but was gone for over two years. (This site started in 2008.)
Here is the story.
I was in excellent health – regular doctor visits, no medications, excellent diet, weight, and exercise. However, at the gym one day, I fully collapsed, immediately unconscious. I was rushed to the hospital and underwent brain surgery for a major hemorrhagic stroke in my left-side brain.
It was May, 2023. This was very bad.
For the next six months, with some hospital stay, shifting to home stay, and back to medical institutions, I worked on recovery. Unfortunately, things got worse by the end of 2023 and early 2024. The second major surgery, to put parts of my skull back together and try to make my brain work, occurred in January, 2024.
I was unconscious and near death, and had religious final rites.
Odds were not much in my favor, but I lived. Still living in a supportive medical facility, I was a vegetable. My right leg and right arm were completely disabled. I could not speak, move, eat, or have basic systems work. In fact, I have almost no memory of the first 5-6 months of 2024.
But by late May or early June, 2024, I started to gain some abilities. I could move with supportive equipment, and had some pathetic speaking ability. Of course, I had little understanding and I could not read a word.
I recall watching a comedy movie about baseball and I was able to laugh. And I enjoyed music.
Some abilities started to return. I realized I could battle forward. I spent the next six months still away from home but working at everything. I relearned to speak, to move, and eventually to lift and walk, to read and to write (4 – 8 hours per day of studying) . . . and to live.
I much later learned via a knowledgeable medical source that about half of people who got what I did unfortunately do not live through it. 75% of the living end up in a bad, restricted state. The remaining 25% of the living gain some improvement but extremely few return to a full life. I am lucky, I did.
By the end of 2024, I came back home. I continued to improve. I can walk, hike, run a bit, exercise and lift heavy weights, read, write, and just LIVE. I diligently continue to work on all aspects of improving. It is going very well.
I do not quit.
I happily restudied woodworking with countless hours in the home shop! On June 24, 2025, I started to write online again.
That’s my story.
Thanks be to God. Thanks to my family. And, my dear readers: I’m back online.
Click below to enjoy:
I am glad you are back!
So good to hear.
You are a fighter and will be back chopping dovetails before you know.
Keep on keeping on.
Miraculous recovery! Your ww wisdom has been missed!
Oh my! So sorry to hear what happened to you. Very happy to hear you are on the mend. Amazing how fragile life can be. Glad you are living again.
Glad you are back, in all the ways that matter!
Amen, thank God you’re still here for all those you touch, and for you, too. Very inspiring. Thankful to continue following you.
“like a bolt from the blue”. I’m sometimes afraid of that. I loved your tips and tricks. All the best!
Commenters, along with all the other readers: thank you!
And look at those wonderful grandchildren!
We are all so deeply thankful to have you back, Dad! You fought your way through the darkest, hardest days with incredible strength and perseverance. Watching you return to life with such gratitude and optimism is inspiring—and seeing you get back to the work you love is a gift. Love you always, your Buddy.
Thank you, Stef!! Straight to my heart.
From a long time reader, glad you are doing well. Missed your postings so am happy you are feeling better and back with them.
Praise The Lord! Rob – it’s good to learn of your recovery. I haven’t done any woodwork for more than a year, and hadn’t visited your site for two years or more, even though I used to do so regularly. Yesterday, I had a thought – what is going on at Heartwood these days? Then I read your post … It’s an encouragement to never give up.
Thank you, Fran and Leslie. Leslie, I hope you get back at the bench!