Members of the new Fairfield Brain Injury/Stroke Support Group discuss their experiences Thursday at the Victor Grange Hall in Fairfield. Shown are Lee Glynn of Skowhegan, at left; Jenn Williams of Fairfield, middle; and Beverly Busque, right, also of Fairfield. The fourth person is her boyfriend, Craig Mott, who sat in on the meeting. Amy Calder/Morning Sentinel

Lee Glynn recalled jumping out of bed Oct. 29, 2017, and heading into the bathroom to take a shower.

As soon as he turned on the light, he noticed his hand didn’t feel right.

“I looked at myself in the mirror and realized one side of my face was numb,” he said.

Glynn slumped to the floor and 45 minutes later an ambulance showed up at his rural home.

“It was not scary, it was not painful; I drifted in and out of consciousness,” the 67-year-old Glynn said.

He was taken to an emergency room and then transferred to a Portland hospital, where he stayed in the intensive care unit for a week and then spent a month in acute rehab. Glynn had suffered a stroke and a brain injury.

He told this story at the new Fairfield Brain Injury/Stroke Support Group which meets 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Thursdays at Victor Grange Hall at 157 Oakland Road in Fairfield. The group was started by Beverly Busque, 61, of Fairfield, who suffered a stroke Sept. 29 and is learning to cope in her new, post-stroke world.

It’s difficult. Busque said she will be going about her day and everything seems OK and suddenly there are “hiccups.”

“I will try to say yellow and it’ll come out eleven. I try to say spaghetti and I can’t say spaghetti. I drop things. It’s frustrating because you don’t have a handle on your emotions. Right now I’m having anger issues. I don’t smoke, I don’t drink. I eat healthy and then I have a stroke and it just pisses me off.”

At the first support group meeting Nov. 4, Glynn, of Skowhegan, Busque, and Jenn Williams, 39, of Fairfield, listened to each other’s stories. They gave feedback, shared tips and swapped resources. The support group serves as a boost.

“There’s nothing like being in a room with people who understand what you’re going through,” Williams said.

Williams was 33 and working 70 hours a week as an insurance agent when she had her stroke. Three years ago she decided to try grocery shopping by herself for the first time since her brain injury.

“It’s very hard for me — lights, sounds, music,” she said. “It was Sunday at 10 a.m. They decided to test the fire alarms, and I have episodes very similar to seizures. I freeze and can’t move or talk. Lights started flashing and sirens went off and I was just kind of crouched in between shelves, I couldn’t move. It was awful.”

The episode passed and Williams began to cry, she said. She approached the store manager to make a recommendation.

“This is my dream. I wish that the store would do a sensory hour at 7 a.m. on Tuesdays when the lights are dimmer, there are fewer people, no music and no dinging of registers. Now I go with my husband and I help him shop 10 or 15 minutes. I have trouble dividing my attention and dividing noises.”

Glynn recalled wanting to die when he was released from the hospital in a wheelchair after his stroke, unable to walk, eat or dress himself.

“You have no idea what a dark place you’re in. Desperation and anger.”

It wasn’t until he found a support group in Brewer eight months after his stroke that he began to heal, both physically and emotionally.

“When I walked out of that meeting, I felt the weight of the world had lifted off me,” he said.

Glynn now is co-chairman of the Acquired Brain Injury Advisory Council of Maine and speaks to support groups. He undergoes physical therapy, swims three days a week, and improves every day. His life, he said, is better than it was before his stroke.

“I have hope, and if you have hope anything is possible. I tell people I want to be a hope broker.”

Busque encourages anyone who wants to join the group to just show up, email her at beverlybusque57 @gmail.com or call her at 649-3053.

Amy Calder has been a Morning Sentinel reporter 33 years. Her columns appear here Saturdays. She may be reached at acalder@centralmaine.com. For previous Reporting Aside columns, go to centralmaine.com.