When Life Gives You Lemons

When I married Chuck in 2012, I didn’t know much about diabetes. I knew he took medication, although it didn’t seem that he took it every day.

In 2013, we were on vacation with my brother Dick and his wife, Sharon. We had been traveling in their motorhome for two weeks through Arizona and California when we stopped for the night at the Orange Grove in Bakersfield, California.

Sometime before dinner, Chuck got up from the sofa. I noticed that he was mumbling and had lost some control of his bodily functions. I immediately knew he needed medical attention.

I didn’t know where the hospital was, but I remembered that my sister Helen had worked at Bakersfield Memorial Hospital. I called her at home in Gresham, Oregon. She quickly contacted her friend Jeanie, who lived just a few miles from the Orange Grove. Jeanie came to get us and drove us to Bakersfield Memorial Hospital.

It wasn’t long before Chuck was admitted. Hours later, the doctor showed me his brain scan. Chuck had suffered a stroke. In fact, he had been experiencing many small strokes over the previous few years.

The doctor told us that Chuck would probably recover from the major stroke, but the smaller strokes had already caused significant damage. Sure enough, my husband has never been the same.

Chuck is a retired shop teacher at Sultan High School. He taught hundreds of students how to weld and how to use tools to make wooden benches, tables, and plant stands. It didn’t seem fair that this should happen to him, especially after I had spent ten years caring for my previous husband, who died from complications of Alzheimer’s disease.

These past twelve years have been a learning experience for me. I began caring for Chuck by making sure he took his medications and stayed active.

In July 2026, Chuck lost thirty pounds. His doctor examined him and took stool samples. As she had suspected, his pancreas was not functioning properly. She prescribed CREON, an enzyme medication to be taken with every meal. She also told us that Chuck was a candidate for insulin.

I asked if I could take a month or two to think about it. The thought of giving Chuck an injection terrified me.

But I knew I was his caregiver, and administering the insulin was part of my responsibility. We began insulin treatment in September. Since then, making sure Chuck gets his medication and insulin and stays active has become a priority for us.

It is amazing what we are capable of doing when it becomes necessary.