When Derek talks about losing his housing, he doesn’t tell the story as though it happened all at once.

He starts six years earlier, with a sudden stroke that forced him to relearn how to walk and talk. Then he talks about his father’s death and the end of his 20-year marriage. He admits he didn’t know how to live alone, so when he found himself on his own for the first time in more than two decades, he felt lost and isolated. After 20 years of sharing a home with someone else, even the routines of everyday life felt unfamiliar. By the time he lost his apartment and arrived at Tedford Housing’s emergency shelter, he had spent years adapting to one major life change after another.

“It wasn’t one thing,” Derek said. “It was everything all at once.”

Before life became a series of medical appointments, paperwork and housing searches, Derek made a living solving problems. Some days, that meant repairing cars. Other days, it meant installing flooring or cabinets. He liked work that left him with something to point to at the end of his shift: a problem solved, an engine fixed, a structure built.

That was the life he knew until, at 42, everything changed.

Derek remembers the stroke in flashes. He was alone when it happened and had no idea what was wrong. He describes feeling trapped in his own body, aware that hours were passing but unable to make his body respond the way he needed it to. The fear of not knowing what was happening stayed with him long after he reached the hospital. Recovery was slow. He had to relearn how to walk and talk, rebuilding abilities that had once come naturally. Even now, six years later, Derek says the stroke changed him in ways that are difficult to explain.

“I remember what it felt like before,” he said. “There are a lot of things I’ve been able to learn again. Impulse control and regulation are harder to trick my brain into remembering. That’s been one of the hardest parts.”

By the time Derek came to Tedford, he had already done much of the work to physically recover. What he needed was the stability to begin putting the pieces back together. With support from his case manager, Mason, he began meeting with a therapist each week, secured a housing voucher and searched for an apartment. When leads fell through or housing applications hit dead ends, Mason kept Derek focused on the next opportunity. Earlier this month, Derek moved into his own apartment in Lewiston.

When asked what he was looking forward to most, Derek didn’t start by talking about the apartment itself. Instead, he talked about his mom. She lives in Auburn, close enough now that they can see each other often. He’s looking forward to sharing meals, flipping through old family photo albums and making up for lost time. He spoke proudly about his three grown children, each building successful lives of their own. And when the conversation turned to his extended family, he laughed.

“I couldn’t even tell you how many cousins I have. It’s got to be close to 100.” Apparently, there are enough to keep beach trips on the calendar all summer.

Looking back on the past several years, Derek is quick to credit the people who helped him reach this point.

“I haven’t had a lot of second chances in life,” he said. “The people I met at Tedford did a lot to get me here. Everyone believed I deserved one.”

Today, Derek is thinking about what’s next. He’s considering taking business classes online. For someone who spent decades solving problems with his hands, it’s a very different kind of challenge — but that’s exactly what appeals to him. For a long time, Derek admits he measured himself against the life he had before the stroke. Now, he says, he’s stopped trying to recreate the past. He’s more interested in finding new challenges to take on and new problems to solve.

Katrina Webster is the development director at Tedford Housing.

The Times Record Sustaining Sponsor
We believe a community must be informed to thrive. bowdoin.edu