Ronald Garcia's Stroke Recovery

Hi, my name is Freya and I'm setting this up as my dad, Ronald Garcia, recently suffered from a stroke. On July 9th, 2023, my dad was on the way to my brother’s basketball game, when all of a sudden he found himself confused, stopping for lunch, and thank goodness someone recognized he was having a stroke, and rushed him to the ER.

My mom, brother, sister, and I have been working for the past six weeks to help my dad recover. He suffers from aphasia and paralysis on his right side, and we need help with the costs of his stay in the ICU, rehab, therapy, and related medical expenses. With my dad’s disability now putting him off work for the foreseeable future, my family needs help. Right now I want my mom to focus on helping my dad recover, my brother to focus on basketball, my sister to focus on her art, and not finances. The past six weeks my dad has been in rehab, my mom, Hera, and Odin spent 8-10 hours a day visiting him and keeping him company, and I flew in to be with my family as soon as I heard. He was recently transferred back to our home, where he has therapy to regain his speech and movement on his right side multiple times a day. My mom spends all hours of the day she is not working by his side, working tirelessly with the nurses and multiple therapists. As soon as my sister and brother get home from school, they are by his side. Every weekend I am driving in from college to visit and check in on my family as much as I can.

This is the biggest struggle of my father’s life, and has turned my whole family’s lives upside down. But for the last six weeks, my dad’s sense of humor has remained, and most importantly, has been so positive and so strong through it all. He has spent the last six weeks smiling and doing his best to thank everyone who has helped him when he can.

Everyone who knows my dad knows he is hardworking, kind, passionate, selfless, and loves everyone he knows. He has been unrelentlessly supportive of my siblings and I and all of our passions. He loved going to the gym and even became a certified personal trainer on the side of his busy work day. He loved woodworking and I know he can’t wait to get back to making random things for our house. My dad and mom moved across the world, over 9,000 miles away from the Philippines, their family, and everything they’ve ever known to raise us in the US, give a better life for me, my brother, and sister. My whole life they have worked so hard and wanted the best for us and gotten me to where I am today, and now it's my turn to do the best I can to help them.

We appreciate anything, and prayers for healing and comfort are just as important. We love my dad so much and just want to help him out as much as we can. Thank you all so much to everyone who has already supported our family and we cannot thank everyone enough.

With love,

Freya, Hera, Odin, Neri