Mike Hazelwood:  

Updated, 15 Dec. 2017 Life, So Far ! I left Cleveland 3 days after graduation for Fairdale,WV. I worked construction & as a grill cook for a few weeks, till I started in the Coal Mines in 12/76. In 4/77, I moved into a Civil War Era farmhouse, it was Haunted (that's whole other story), VERY Haunted! I entered the Navy in late 77, and was honorably discharged in late 78 after they tried to Totally Screw Me. I moved back into the old Haunted House for several months, till a ghostly attempt on my life, forced me to leave. I worked a few different jobs (including Gourmet Cook) and got married in late 79 to a wonderful girl, April. Just two weeks later, I was crushed by a Hay Baler, ruining my Back and giving Arthritis a foothold (or Back-Hold). I did some construction work, retail merchandising, cooked and assorted other "BS" jobs until 87. My first son, Benjamin was born December 1985. My second Zechari (Zack), was born in January of 87. In Late 87, increasing pain ended my "Laborer" career and I went back to College for an Allied Science Degree in Respiratory Care (look it up). I worked as Licensed Respiratory Care Practitioner from 1989 to 2001, when devastating, chronic pain and Crippling Arthritis forced me onto Disability. What a way to have to live, it SUCKS! After my Second Wife left me, I ran a small eBay business to 'get by'. My disability claim was hindered by medical problems and governmental BS. Between 76 and 01, I was an avid spelunker, fisherman, hunter, scuba diver, water dog and Harley Rider. I had to sell my Harley in 2002, because I just couldn't handle it anymore. My second wife Sue, blew me off in the spring of 2004 after a relationship on the rocks and a tennis Ball sized Brain Tumor, changed "WHO" she was! Finding it Five Years later, she had emergency surgery to have it removed. Now, Sue is back in Alabama and like 12 years ago, is not the person I once knew and loved. It's difficult to be SO CLOSE to someone and then to lose them to the grave. It's FAR WORSE to be that close and to lose 'the person', but not the body. The face and voice, are that of someone I loved. But the person inside, is someone else. When you have a huge piece of brain missing, it's going to change you. Whether you want it to, or not! Sue had "NO Choice". Neither did I. But meeting someone new (or whom I already knew), turned my life around, 10,000%!!! As one door closes, another Always Opens. Though this may sound strange coming from ME, I KNOW a Higher Power stepped in, leading me to someone else. A set of strange circumstances, led to Lori and TO Each Other! It was at a time when we Both Needed Someone Else in our lives. Even IF Only to help us out the respective situations, we'd each found ourselves stuck in. I was a hundred pound overweight and those who knew me, could see that I was "ON Deaths Doorstep", knocking! I was Deeply Depressed and I really didn't care if I lived or died. Then one day, I was somewhere I did NOT need to be and crossed paths with Lori. Having worked together 20 years earlier, we exchanged pleasantries, as usual. As I hobbled away, Lori said "I'm single now, CALL ME!" THAT, was very uncharacteristic of the Lori I once knew, so I took it as a 'nicety'. A few weeks and a LOT of Thought later, I picked up the phone. Over several weeks, I called her number 20 times, but always hung up before it would even ring. Alone for 10 years, I was terrified at the possibility of "dating". Then one night, I held the phone and Lori answered. It turned out that her father had JUST died and she was alone, depressed and crying. We talked a half hour and I cheered her up, a bit. I asked if I could call again, later and Lori agreed to it. I waited two months, till after a difficult surgery I'd had planned. When I finally DID call back, I asked her out and Lori reluctantly said, "Yes". On those first few dates and after years of working together, we are found out that we were "More ALIKE, than we could have Ever, Possibly Imagined! BUT, Lori had lived a Very Difficult Life and reaching for her in Any Way, would require A LOT of patience and I had Never been a patient person. All that patience I'd never used before, was now needed, all at once. As time passed, my patience held and Lori opened up, sharing herself with me. Beyond the mouth, 'driven' coworker I'd known, was a Beautiful and Intelligent Woman! I'm still patient and now after two years, am hoping Lori will "move in", soon. In the last two years, we've raised each other Out of the terrible darkness we were Both living within. When people see us out, they think we are an "Old Married Couple". Childhood sweethearts, who've spent a "lifetime together!" It seems that even just shy of 60 years old, people "CAN Find Love" Again. I don't mean the love of coming home to a hot dinner, a clean house, washed dishes and laundered clothes. But a much deeper attachment. The kind that only develops over time and through hardship, pain, patience and the giving of 'one's self' to another. It's something I've known before, but it's entirely New, to Lori. It seems that most of her life, she's been little more than a 'servant' to others. NO Longer! The last several months have "SUCKED" for me! In early January, a surgical procedure, was followed by a BAD Case of the Flu or possibly "Norovirus" (aka a Stomach Flu). While suffering the Flu, the surgical site unknowingly became infected. Late one evening it burst open, pouring Pus all over and I was too sick from the Flu, to even understand the dire circumstances I was in. I text Lori and She ended up driving me to a local hospital ER, where after 8 hours of waiting, I was admitted to their LAST available bed. Two days later, the site was opened up and cleaned out. Two days after that, I was transferred to a Roanoke (Virginia) hospital where a day later (a Saturday), I was again opened up and cleaned out and a medical implant I'd had for 12 years, was removed. The infection had NEARLY Reached my Spinal Cord! After a total of two weeks, I was sent home with a PICC Line and two weeks of Home IV Antibiotics. It seems I came VERY Close to a killer case of Sepsis and/or Encephalitis! If not for Lori "telling me" what to do, I'd have likely sit in my recliner and quickly, Faded Away. Just one more reason for us to "have someone" there who cares enough, to -Tell Us- what's best for us, even when we don't care to hear it. Two weeks in a hospital bed and three more of total inactivity, had left me totally "drained and weak". But that episode in my life, was Not without purpose. It's facilitated "a lot of change" for all concerned! All of this happened, right as I was beginning a "Move". I'd just started to move from where I'd lived for 16 years, to where I'm at right now, my (once) parent's home, which is now all But "Mine". I'd moved a big car load of necessities here. Just some small boxes and bags of clothing and personals and then, ended up hospitalized. It had been only my second night here, when I became "deathly ill!" THAT, made everything else "complicated", as everywhere I went, I gave my OLD address and phone number. But it's all working out OK now, one way or another. My father had passed in December and my mother's depression and apathy, put her in a Nursing Home. Before all of this began, I hoped and planned on this being the Best Summer I'd had in MANY years and for a while, it had seemed that all of that, "was gone". But as it turns out, it MAY Yet be the Best Summer, just in a different way than I EVER thought it Could Be! IF Lori will 'move in', it'll ALL be worth it! Here, I live high on a ridge, well out of the reach of the recent floodwaters, that have destroyed SO Much, recently And in the past. I just do NOT understand, building in a home in a Flood plane! In the past decade, Climate Change has made flooding, more severe and more frequent in West Virginia! I know some of my Classmates, would question WHY I'd want to live here, well away from the conveniences of city life. IF they'd watch one sunrise here, one sunset and maybe sit up all of just One Night, listening to Owls Hoot and watch the Stars wheel overhead, they'd "Get It!" There's NO Bus Service here and damned few deliveries of ANY Thing! Yes, the Power goes 'out' occasionally, too! But I have Two Generators, Plenty of Oil Lamps, Two Coleman Lanterns, Two Coleman Stoves and Heat, the does not require electricity. I'm set! I keep plenty of Bottled Water here and know where to get clean water, IF I'd need it. I live far enough from my one neighbor, that I can 'P' off my porch and not worry in the least, about him Seeing (or Caring)! I have over an Acre here, a Big Garage, an attached Carport, 2 Big Bedrooms (and 1 Small one), a ...Expand for more