LORAIN – On Thanksgiving Day 1970, Jackie Mayer had it all.

She’d been Miss America 1963. After that, the Sandusky native married and settled down near Pittsburgh to raise a family.

The next morning, she awoke to hear her 9-month-old daughter crying for her bottle. To her shock, Mayer couldn’t lift herself out of bed. She couldn’t reach over to her husband next to her. And she couldn’t make a sound to tell him something was wrong.

Mayer had suffered a major stroke at age 28.

Her fight to recover – Mayer considers herself 90 percent recovered from her stroke – led to her becoming a motivational speaker on stroke survival. She brought her hopeful message to Lorain on Saturday, speaking at the weekly Great Lakes Rehabilitation Support Group at Community Regional Medical Center.

Back then, she said, there was no formal rehabilitative care. After 16 days in the hospital, she was sent home to rebuild her life. She had to relearn how to tie her shoes, how to walk, her ABC’s, things she had spent the previous few years teaching her

5-year-old son, Bill.

“It was then I developed my one-day-at-a-time philosophy of life,” she said. “This day, this hour, this moment, are all I have. I can’t worry about tomorrow.”

It was seven years before Mayer was able to talk comfortably again.

An epiphany came 10 years after her stroke, when a teenaged Bill told her she was feeling sorry for herself and that she needed to “get off (her) butt and do something with her life.”

At first, Mayer said, she was furious at her son. But after a long cry in her bedroom, she saw that he was right.

“I had to take control of my life,” she said. “I had family and friends who loved me, but they also made decisions for me, talked for me, decided what I would eat and what I would wear. That was enabling me to not do what I should have been doing.”

Mayer overcame her passiveness and her fears about being seen.

“Once, people had seen me as an ideal of American beauty,” she said. “Now, my face drooped on one side and I drooled. I knew many people would now see me as somehow deformed or pathetic. Many stroke survivors lose their confidence and self-esteem.”

That’s why, she said, thinking positively and surrounding yourself with positive people is essential.

“Each and every one of you is beautiful inside and out,” she said.

Staying positive and not giving up is what helped her recover, Mayer said.

Bob Rehovic of Avon Lake, a stroke survivor, also spoke at the meeting. He said it’s often easier for stroke survivors to stay home and watch TV, when activity and fellowship are what they really need.

He said the Adaptive Sports and Recreation Program at Community Health Partners can help people get back into relationships and activity.

The program offers activities including aquatic exercise, bowling, golf, shuffleboard, pool, darts and art therapy.

“You’ll feel better once you get out and do something,” he said.

Contact Melissa Hebert at 329-7129 or mhebert@chroniclet.com.

---

Print this story
Report an inappropriate comment

---

In order to comment, you must agree to our user agreement and discussion guidelines.

Need help? Email Us.

---