For more than a half-century, Ron and Ann Abel have survived everything the world has thrown at them, including Ron’s tour of duty in Vietnam.

“The determination and the love are very strong,” Ann said of her relationship with Ron. 

But when Ron suffered a stroke recently, and at the same time received a cancer diagnosis, the future looked bleak.

“I’m destined to be in this bed for the rest of my life,” is what the 71-year-old said he thought upon arriving home, bedridden, after three months in the hospital.

Ann would not hear of it.

“I told him, ‘Don’t give up on me. I won’t give up on you,’” she said.

 Teaming up with the local Veterans Administration and Blessing Home Care, Ann set out to get her husband of 48 years back on his feet – or at the very least out of bed and into a wheelchair.

At the beginning, Ron was a tough customer.

“Oh, no!” That’s what Ron says crossed his mind each time the Blessing Home Care team came to work with him. It was the pain talking.

“He was defeated and had given up,” observed Chris Miller, RN, Blessing Home Care. “Communication was key with Ron. The team all had to be on the same page. When he would have a ‘moment’, we would all go to talk with him.”

“They never took no for an answer,” Ann said. “When they came and he said he was hurting, they told him he had to work through it, that they were there to help him work through it. They knew he could do it.”

Slowly but surely, the tough love approach worked.

“I used to dread it every morning when they came,” Ron recalled. “I thank them now.”

 “He changed from dreading it to looking forward to it,” Ann continued. “They were extremely dedicated people. They had him set goals and they were determined to get him to meet those goals. Which he has,” Ann said.

“There was a lot of crying with each accomplishment and a lot of smiles. It was a big step when he accomplished something. They celebrated them all with us,” she concluded.

After four months - the day Ron was released from their care - the Blessing Home Care team came to visit one more time - with a cake made of his favorite treat, Hostess Ding Dongs.

“He is a totally different man now,” Chris concluded. “He’s not cranky. He’s hilarious.”

In a serious moment, Ron added, “I think without those gals I probably would have died. But they just kept pushing me.”