WIXY's Gone Bananas

As most who read this know, I enjoy birthdays. Your birthday is your personal holiday. Today would have been my brother Richard's 50th birthday. I think we would have gone to the nursing home with a cake, ice cream, pop, and some presents, probably books, some DVD's and a hand held game. Ricky was the same way with birthdays. He knew when everybody's birthday was and their ages. This included all of his nieces, nephews, and my three grandchildren. He would call us up on our birthdays and sing "Happy Birthday." If he could afford it he would have one of us pick him up so he could buy presents. Or if he won something playing bingo, he would give it as a gift. To those new to this blog, Ricky passed away March 4 of this year. Kathy and I were his guardians, as I had promised my mother before she died in 2004 that we would take care of him. He had been unable to walk the last 20 years of his life and his mental capacity had dimished due to seizure activity. He was a c

Neurofibromatosis is a genetically-transmitted disease in which nerve cells ( Schwann cells ) grow tumors ( neurofibromas ) that may be harmless or may cause serious damage by compressing nerves and other tissues. The tumors may cause bumps under the skin, colored spots, skeletal problems, pressure on spinal nerve roots , and other neurological problems. [1] Neurofibromatosis is autosomal dominant, which means that it is autosomal (it affects males and females equally often) and dominant (only one copy of the affected gene is needed to get the disorder). Therefore, if only one parent has neurofibromatosis, his or her children have a 50% chance of developing the condition as well. Disease severity in affected individuals, however, can vary (this is called variable expressivity ). Moreover, in around half of cases there is no other affected family member because a new mutation has occurred. Definition from Wikipedia. The motivation for this post comes from the fact that Carl Edwards

JOE JOE CHARBONEAU 1980 American League rookie of the year, Joe Charboneau, was on hand to sign autographs at the Rittman IGA this afternoon. The Foutty's brought Joe to Rittman today as part of the first anniversary celebration as a thank you to the good people of Rittman. I was also there with the WIXYcam. One thing I can always appreciate, being one who has a name which is commonly misspelled, is when a celebrity' s name is misspelled. But then again, only a fan would notice this one. That banner had been hanging for 2 weeks and Joe's last name is spelled "Charbenau." The correct spelling for those keeping score is Charboneau. Cliff Note: 100 years from now, who will care? Anyway, today when I went to see Joe, Donnie Foutty, one of the owners, took a WIXYcam photo of Joe with me. And I wasn't as prepared as I should have been, as the WIXYcam's batteries went dead right after that picture was taken. Anyway, you may ask why Joe Charboneau is so special.

Today is Opening Day 2008. Not the same for me this year. It used to be one of Ricky's favorite days. Win or lose, I would hear from him. Indians just scored three runs in the 8th with a bases loaded double from Casey Blake. Ricky would have loved that . Score now Indians 10, White Sox 7. We went to the home opener in 1982. It had snowed for several days and was cold this Saturday at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. It was a stadium that had a special air about it. You could smell it from a ways back. But it did have one thing. Major League Baseball . It was the Cleveland Indians versus the Texas Rangers. The Indians were a very w oeful team in those days. Some seasons they had decent pitching and no hitting. Other seasons they had fairly good hitting and no pitching. Front office would usually trade one for another. Those days the Indians were the farm team for the rest of baseball. Texas won that game that day 8-3. Thank you baseball-almanac.com . The thing I do remember in the game

The last two weeks have been more bearable because of all of you. From the first email from Brenda and the first response from YEKIMI, to all the emails, responses on my posts and signing of the guest book, you have all provided comfort to me and my family. I also want to thank everybody who stopped here in the past two weeks and got to know my brother and reminded me that he was a very special guy. There is still an empty space in all our lives, but it's good to know that the muse allowed me to share Ricky with the blogosphere. I want to thank all those who left a comment or sent an email encouraging me to keep posting about Ricky. From the bottom of my heart....And from me and my family. YOU GUYS ARE THE GREATEST!

Lisa Porter was one of the supervisors at Autumnwood, the nursing facility where Ricky was living the last four years of his life. She was on medical leave when she received the news on March 4 that Ricky had passed away. The following was a letter that she was going to read at the memorial service that had been scheduled last Saturday, March 8. We had to postpone the memorial because of the blizzard that crippled the area last Saturday. Ricky was my friend and buddy. My bestest buddy at Autumnwood. He was special. He considered me his confidant and guardian angel. We both loved the Cleveland Indians and many evenings I would fins myself after I clocked out sitting on the edge of his bed rooting for our beloved Indians to take the win. We had many conversations about his life, present and past. His memory simply amazed me. He remembered his complete family down to nieces and nephews birthdates and years they were born. Sometimes even the day.He remembered when he got sick and the exact

After Mom passed, it was suggested that we petition the court for guardianship of Ricky. Since my sister lived with us, all our attorney needed to do was send a registered letter to our half brother, whom I hadn't seen since 1999. He signed for the letter, but never responded, so the path was clear. The day of the hearing, we went to court in Wooster, and everything there went smooth. The judge asked Ricky if there was anything he wanted to say, and Ricky asked "Are we done?" The judge said yes, and Ricky said "Good. I want to go to Wal*Mart." There were three things Ricky never forgot: People's ages, their birthdays, or their phone number. Of course, he could dial our number in his sleep. There were three numbers we never gave him, our cell phone numbers and my work number. He would call the house whenever he needed anything. One time he called our house, got the answering machine and left a two word message-"Oh sh*t." This was while mom was still

This is a poem written by Rita Flinn, who drove the bus to Nick Amster workshop in Wooster, Ohio. Ricky looked forward to boarding the bus for workshop every day.

My dad passed away September 13, 2000. After this I helped my mom take care of things as far as decision making was, including going to plan meetings for Ricky. In 2002, the workers at the home where he was living at the time was asking what they could do for Ricky, as he was getting bored with the everyday life in the nursing home. I had worked at a facility which housed severe to profound mentally retarded individuals for 12 years, so I had a suggestion based on my experience. I suggested that employment at a sheltered workshop be looked into. Ricky was then placed at Parma Adult Workshop and not only did he have something to do during the week, but he got a small paycheck as well. He used to get upset when there was no work to do, but got to interact with others closer to his age. everything worked well until the fall of 2003. My mother's health was gradually deteriorating. I had gone with her to the doctor's one day. The doctor called me into the hall and told me that she d

Right after Ricky's 41st birthday my parents made a very difficult, but necessary decision. They could no longer take care of him, so Ricky was placed in a nursing home. A few were checked out and eventually he was placed in one in North Royalton, Ohio. Ricky was upset about it at first, but found out he had more freedom to move around than what he had while at home. He had some activities to participate in and people he could visit with. And mom and Deirdre went to visit about 2-3 times a week. One more thing he was given after he got there was a TV/VCR combo, along with some of his tapes from home. And Ricky, being the creature of habit he was, always watched his Saturday morning cartoons. the staff soon become familiar with his laugh which, as it always had been, was a very loud, very hearty laugh. Mom come to visit one day and checked in at the nurses station and was told "Your son really enjoys his cartoons, doesn't he?" Shortly after the move to the home, Ricky

Today is our 29th wedding anniversary. I can tie this into my current story line by saying that Kathy had become both a friend and a guardian angel as well as a sister in law to Ricky over the years. Ricky liked her first and foremost, because she was my wife. Kathy would take time to listen to what Ricky had to say when others were too busy for him. Ricky knew that Kathy liked iced tea. One time when he knew that we were coming up for a holiday cookout, he made 27 gallons of sun tea. I guess he was concerned we would run out. Ricky always made Kathy feel welcome when we come up. In Ricky's later years, Kathy would look out for Ricky's needs and sometimes go to the nursing home and take him to Wal-Mart for whatever he would want or need. There were times after we were legal guardians that one of us would have to go to an appointment for him or on occasion, go to the emergency room to meet the ambulance. One time Kathy got to the hospital, back to Ricky's room and he told th

Ricky had always been a very active person, sometimes perpetual motion personified. I had eventually moved to Rittman and was 40 miles away from the rest of the family, with my own growing family to raise. My older and younger sister also lived at home, so they took care of Ricky's needs. Bev also had two children living there, so Deirdre, our younger sister took care of Ricky's needs. But Deirdre started having seizures too. At the time they were somewhat manageable. Deirdre also had a part time job at K-Mart. Ricky had plenty of people to take care of him, and my mom would make sure he had all he wanted. As I posted on Seek Him First, he loved going to church, and folks from the church took him to baseball games and movies. In August, 1986, things will change for Ricky. I will give my view. My two girls were spending the night with my parents at their camper, which was at Sleepy Hollow Lake, in Brunswick. That afternoon after I got home from work, Kathy and I along with Adam,

These are the scenes that I saw looking out my door this morning. We got slammed overnight. We knew this was coming, but I was hoping that this would be the storm that Cincinnati, or Buffalo would get instead. I think they got it also. We are supposed to have Ricky's memorial service this afternoon. We still will be at the church if anybody intends to come. My family never were too keen on funerals and memorial services and I can imagine this conversation going on between Ricky and our mom this past Wednesday: Ricky: I guess Clifford and Kathy are going to have a memorial service for me this Saturday. Mom: I told them not to make a big deal out of this and they didn't have to. Ricky: Well, you know, I still owe Clifford for the time he told me he threw the elbow grease on the truck. And there also was the time he sent me for a blivot when we were in boy scouts. And a few other times.... Mom: Alright. Alright. What do you want to do? Ricky: You know we do have connections now. A

We had moved to the west side of Cleveland, Ohio after Ricky graduated from high school. Ricky was unable to work a traditional job but my parents did get him into a sheltered workshop for a time. On my days off, I would listen to what he was saying about his work. He was proud of what he was doing. On his time off, he would keep himself occupied with the sports section and sports magazines. He would devour them and be able to talk sports with most who could understand him, as he had a habit of talking too fast. I would play on his love of Cleveland sports and for his birthday one year I took him to a Cleveland Browns game. We took the rapid transit into downtown Cleveland. Before the transit got to the Terminal Tower, Ricky went into a seizure. I got him off the train, but he was still confused and tried to pull me back on while the train was moving. Oh, that day the Browns beat the New York Jets and we did enjoy the game. There were also times we went to Cleveland Municipal Stadium t

This is an addition to the last post. I graduated from high school in 1974. After that, my dad wouldn't allow Ricky to take part in extracurricular activities at school. But he was going to the Medina County Joint Vocational School which opened in the fall of 1974. While Ricky went to the JVS, there were the cruel people taunting him, hoping he would have seizures. But there were also people who would stick up for him. One girl from our home district wrote a letter in the school paper wondering why these students would be so mean that they would want to cause someone to have a seizure. I found out some of the students from Diversified Health Occupations would also help him out after having a seizure. I found this out after I started dating one of the students. This student would later become my wife, Kathy, and his last guardian angel while alive. Small world.

Most folks knew him as Richard, Rich, or Richie. We had a cousin named Ricky, so some of the relatives called him "Little Ricky" even though he was 4 months older than his cousin. But when my dad first called him "Dick," my mom put her foot down(in her words) so the only one who got away with that was the high school basketball coach, Mr. Keating. My brother practically worshiped the ground I walked on, and sometimes that was very annoying, as he was my shadow as we were growing up. I look back and realize that that is the greatest tribute someone could give another person. I could predict what he would become interested in, because it would what I had most recently become interested in. Only thing is he would become more fanatical about it. I got interested in baseball and a year later you would think Ricky swallowed the record book, he would know so much. I would get Batman and Superman comic books, next thing you know Ricky would have his own collection of comics

I am waiting for an ice storm to be coming through the area. We've been watching the weather reports. By now Chicago has already been hit. From what I see, the Terre Haute gang will be spared this time. WIXYjr should be driving home while it's occurring. If we get some ice hanging on the trees the WIXYcam will be there to bring you the latest. I've been in a blue funk today, so I decided to go to the Goodwill and look around. I have to do this once in awhile in order to maintain my standing as white trash. While I was there I found two books in real good condition that I think I would give my younger brother for Christmas. My brother has been wheelchair bound for the past 20 years and now resides in a nursing home. Since both my parents are deceased, my wife and I have guardianship over him. He likes sports and can discuss statistics with anybody, although he is mildly retarded. The books were "The Stone Cold Truth," by Stone Cold Steve Austin and "Manki