Angel Helpers

Back in the day, Mark was quite the golf player, with a smirk, the 80-year-old said he could play with the best.

Although Mark can still play golf in his head, he’s not able to play the game anymore, which breaks his heart.

Two years ago, after suffering a stroke that left his right arm and leg partially paralyzed, Mark is content to achieve smaller victories, such as moving one of his fingers.

After the stroke, a rehabilitation person and Angel Helpers came in, at first it was thought that Mark was going to improve very little due to his age and the severity of the stoke, BUT that was then and boy has he made a lot of progress!

After six weeks of rehabilitation and two years of Angel Helpers caregivers helping/pushing the workouts, he is now walking with a walker (YES, WALKING).  Besides working on his arm and leg, they have also been working to keep his brain active with number and word puzzles along with other activities.  Mark’s wife says that she thinks much of that progress can be attributed to combining traditional rehabilitation with Home Health Aide’s from Angel Helpers.

Although the rehabilitation person was invaluable, she gives a lot of credit  to Angel Helpers for not just having Mark do the workouts, but talking to him and making him want to get better even on the bad days. Boy, are their bad days, but Mark looks positively at all the progress he’s made over the past two years. His right arm and leg are still not as strong as his left, but he’s getting there.

The ultimate goal is for Mark to be able to walk across the house with a walker. Some days Mark can walk a few feet on his own (with a caregiver by his side for safety), but there are some days he can hardly walk at all with his walker. He must celebrate the small victories and see all the progress he has made over time.

What we learn as a baby is based on repetition - from standing, walking or playing the piano.  It’s a lot like that when a brain is injured, we need to retrain it through repetitive activities or motions.

Although the progress is slow and can be frustrating at times, Mark’s wife said her husband has been a good sport and so happy that he didn’t have to go to a nursing home.  She knows she couldn’t help Mark without Angel Helper’s assistance - especially with the shower and personal care tasks.

Mark said, chuckling, “My hope is to shoot golf again”.

Gary and others from Angel Helpers MN went to Albert Lea to help his brother’s construction company (Larson Contracting - Al Larson) build a new home for the Dirk and Susan DeVries family with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.  The home was completed in 106 hours (4 1/2 days), neither rain nor darkness could slow the builders and hundreds of volunteers. Everyone was upbeat and a joy to work with because they felt honored and happy to help a deserving family. On the day of the reveal, cheerleaders from the Minnesota Vikings, University of Minnesota Gophers and Albert Lea High school braved the cold and rain to witness this special occasion. The Gopher marching band played as the Gopher Mascot cheered the crowd on. It rained all day turning the parking lot and walkways into slippery wet mud.  It looked like a Monster truck rally with car wheels spinning resulting in many cars having to be pulled out by all different kinds of construction equipment and tow trucks. I barely made it out myself with my 4-wheel drive jeep - but it cost me my transmission.  All-in-all it was worth it to see the family get their dream home.

All building supplies and labor from Larson Contracting and all the other companies were donated. My brother Al has always given back to the community, so when Extreme Home Makeover called, he said he’d be happy to take on this huge task.  All of the companies involved were extremely generous (giving much more than they were asked for) from food, building supplies, behind the scenes supplies to everything needed for a house. Ask Winnebago for 14 motor homes on loan plus $10,000.

For me and my co-workers we found this to be a very rewarding, once in a lifetime experience.

I’m proud of my older brother Al, who after being injured in Vietnam started a small construction company with only 8 employees in 1977 to one with $30M in sales today.