Brubaker provides inspiring message

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

The fact that Bob Brubaker is talking and walking is a miracle in itself after the Van Wert resident had a stroke six years ago while on a bicycle trip. Brubaker provided inspiration — and more than a little humor — as he spoke of his ordeal and recovery during Friday morning’s Good Friday Breakfast sponsored by the YMCA and hosted by Willow Bend Country Club.

Brubaker was riding with his family in the Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure (GOBA) in June 2005 when he got what he thought was a migraine headache while cycling on a tandem bike with his son, Luke. He found out after completing a 56-mile day trip as part of the journey that the situation was much more serious than he thought. After completing the day’s journey, Brubaker began feeling worse and, eventually, was hospitalized at St. Charles Mercy Hospital in the city of Oregon, near Toledo, with a stroke.

He was in bad shape. His left side was paralyzed and he couldn’t talk and it would take months before he could begin to care for himself. His right carotid artery was also completely blocked, but doctors were astounded when later tests showed the artery had become unblocked and was completely open again.

Brubaker said his first concerns were for his family. “I prayed to God to take care of my family,” he told the large crowd that attended the breakfast, but then got a roar of laughter when he added, “because who in the world would be able to turn on the TV surround sound if I wasn’t there.”

What followed were months of speech therapy and physical therapy, with support from his wife, Susan, but brain damage made some things, like work, no longer possible. The months of being off work while undergoing rehabilitation had left Brubaker without a job and with the worries of how the family would make if financially.

Some people would have given up at that point, but Brubaker had something those people didn’t: faith that God would provide for the family. For awhile, though, Brubaker said, he wavered, questioning his belief in God and wondering why he had been singled out for the challenges that had come his way.

But his faith soon revived and he began dealing with the situation in which he found himself, although there were still times when he struggled, especially after having his request for permanent disability turned down twice by the federal government.

That’s when God, in the form of U.S. Representative Paul Gillmor, brought help, Brubaker noted. He and his wife had contacted Gillmor’s office for assistance in getting disability and Gillmor’s staff finally completed that process for him. It was the timing that Brubaker said had to be divine, since the congressman died shortly after that from a fall down the stairs in his Washington, D.C., apartment.

Today, Brubaker is grateful to God for his recovery, although that process is still ongoing and he may never fully recover from the stroke.

Rev. Will Haggis of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church gave the invocation for the event, while Rev. David Ray provided the benediction.