Thank you all for the kind thoughts, prayers, support, and well wishes. Todd spent almost a week in the hospital but has no resulting physical disability. He is working really hard and making strides with his therapy.

Drop and give me twenty, Honey. No, no, work hard on that speech therapy!

Since returning to Zimmerman Marine, we’ve been focused on a bunch of stuff (no, there’s no stopping him). But, just as important, the techs wrapped up the bottom job, shaft installation, rudder, PSS seal, and in the end, the alignment.

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A few days later, the extreme heat warnings began.

On his way to the service yard shower one afternoon, Todd detoured to the dock to take matters into his own hands. Standing near the water to direct his (*non-waiting) unwanted hair into the water. See, he is thinking! Ha!

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Regardless of the heat, on Friday the 11th, something magical happened.

Unfortunately, the tide was too low that afternoon to put the ‘Mare back in the water. So, one more blistering weekend trying to stay cool however possible.

And then, bright and early Monday morning, the lift was centered, the extra straps fastened, the heavy gal lifted, and…

Then she was gently lowered, and, oh, happy day!

Seven long weeks after she was hauled out, she became a boat again. The team held her steady against the current while Todd and the mechanics (*claimed) climbed aboard, checked fully for leaks, and fired the big girl up. She sounded so good!

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And Lord, what was next? Just pull straight out, then u-turn and back into the slip right next (*store) door! Through it all, Todd was ecstatic to be back in the water!

Do you know what this means, Honey???

*NOTE: What’s great about this post is that Todd helped with the writing! He wanted me to leave in a few of the items he struggled with so you can see that, these days, “it’s not easy being him.” 🙂

This is Susie. Typically, Todd and I co-author the blog. I handle the photos and layout, then we bounce the writing back and forth until we both agree the posts are ready to publish.

Today, in the interest of “sharing the journey with friends and family,” I have a difficult tale to relate, combined with a testimony about a word from God. Bear with me. I’ll try to keep it brief.

Saturday morning, we got up around 0500 with a minor problem on the boat. After we’d taken care of it, Todd suggested watching a little TV in the air-conditioned stateroom before going upstairs to continue the boat projects. Shortly before 0700, he said he was still tired and wanted to sleep a bit. I settled myself out on the bow to quietly greet the day with a cup of coffee and my tablet.

As I was sitting there, I clearly heard (felt?), “This will be hard.” I looked up to see a section of dark grey clouds had formed in the blue sky in front of me. My thought was, naturally, something really difficult is coming. I mean, I don’t typically receive such clear messages, let alone ominous ones. I questioned God, and received the same word, “This will be hard.” There was a terrible weight in my soul, but I felt overwhelmed by His presence. Then I was shown an illustration that just as problems/storms blow into our lives, they do move away. I watched as some of the clouds blew off, revealing a piece of a rainbow, and I clearly heard (felt?), “but it’s going to be okay.”

Let me pause here to say, I’m not crazy. (At least I don’t think so.) This was not an audible voice, just statements in my head so clear it was as if they’d been spoken aloud. It gives me goosebumps to write about it.

As it turns out, while I was on the bow and he was napping that morning, Todd suffered an embolic stroke. The clots went to the left side of his brain and into his right lung. While there was no damage to his motor skills, he is working to overcome expressive aphasia. He “sees” what he wants to say but can’t always get the words out. We were – I cannot overstate this – incredibly blessed.

Todd is already making strides in his recovery and should be discharged from the hospital today. The speech pathologist suggested we continue the blog, as another way of exercising his brain. He says he isn’t up to that just yet but wants everyone to know he will be back!

In the meantime, I’ll wrap this up with the photo I took at 0819 that morning.

“This will be hard. But it’s going to be okay.”