ALONG FOR THE RIDE

By Kathy Pierson

Joyce loved an adventure. Always an avid camper and physically active person, she walked three miles a day, five days a week. In 2017 she walked/jogged a half marathon in a little over three hours at age seventy-eight.

After Joyce’s husband died in 2010, she and her brother, David, tucked his Harley Davidson motorcycle into a trailer and pulled it from his home in Michigan to Montana to visit her children. From there they toured several points of interest on David’s motorcycle. In 2018 they planned to not only trek to Montana, but from there would head for the Alaskan wilderness.

David mapped their route months in advance, made all the hotel reservations and planned for places to visit along the way. The anticipation grew the closer they got to departure in June 2018.

In February Joyce packed her suitcase to head from Indiana to David’s home to attend their mother’s funeral. When her son arrived for the pilgrimage to Michigan, his mom didn’t answer when he knocked. Brian tried the doors and windows, to no avail. He returned home to retrieve the extra key Joyce gave him. Once inside her house, he found his mother unconscious on the floor. Brian called 911 and notified his uncle.

When David arrived at the hospital six hours later, a doctor told him his sister suffered a major stroke triggered by a severe brain bleed. David stayed with her every day and slept in a nearby hotel at night. He conversed with doctors during Joyce’s week-long stay. The prognosis looked grim.

When she moved to rehab for a month, David was by her side gaining tips from her therapists. Upon release from the facility, he took Joyce to his Michigan home. Neither realized she would never return to her house in Indiana.

At first, Joyce could do nothing for herself, not even sit up. Although gaining movement on her left side was slim, David found therapists to give Joyce the best chance. They soon realized the trip to Alaska would be impossible, but the dream did not die. More determined than ever, they set a goal to embark the following summer.

Months of arduous therapy ensued, first in David’s home and later at an out-patient facility. The therapists went beyond the call of duty rigging up devices to simulate a motorcycle

seat. Even though Joyce was now eighty years old, and still had little use of her left side, she was not deterred.

The day of their June 2019 departure finally arrived. It took seven days to travel to the home of Joyce’s relatives in Montana. After a week-long visit, David packed the Harley and they headed for Alaska.

The four-week journey through Fairbanks, Denali, Anchorage, Homer, Yukon and British Columbia involved many challenges for Joyce. But they also had the privilege of seeing whales breach in the ocean, and moose, bear, and buffalo along the roadsides.

On cold or rainy days, Joyce wore a heated suit plugged into the motorcycle’s battery. They also visited the giant redwoods in California on their way back to Montana.

People often watched David place Joyce’s crippled body astride the motorcycle’s bulky frame. Many approached to ask questions and share their admiration while David secured Joyce with a seatbelt he devised for her safety.

They continued their excursions every year thereafter, except in 2020 when the Covid pandemic kept them home. The next two years, instead of hauling the Harley in the trailer, they rode it cross-country, pulling a small trailer with Joyce’s wheelchair strapped atop. In 2022, David and Joyce headed straight to Crater Lake in Oregon, and swung into Washington to see friends, before heading to Montana.

Plans went forward to do another trip in 2023, until one morning in January, when Joyce collapsed at the breakfast table. The emergency room doctor told David she experienced another brain bleed on the opposite side of her head and there was little hope of recovery. David

sat vigil by her hospital bed for a week until Joyce lost the battle to live the adventurous life she had enjoyed for 84 years.

Joyce had resolved to never give up making the effort to do the impossible, and David never gave up faith in her ability to tackle tough tasks. Although David continues the road trips, it will never be the same without Joyce along for the ride