Mike Amaral had his truck ready, golf clubs packed, money saved, and was one week away from his annual cross-country trip. He had friends all along the route — Arizona, California, and his favorite stop, Steamboat Springs, Nev. It was the trip he looked forward to every year for 18 years. It’s what he worked for.
Born and raised on Martha’s Vineyard, Mike’s story was a classic Islanders tale for most of his life. He went to Connecticut College, studied political science, played varsity basketball, and moved back home after graduating. School was never his thing, and he couldn’t picture himself working a 9-to-5 job. Instead, he coached basketball, drove cabs, and worked hard to afford a couple of months on the open road.
These were the days before Uber and Lyft, and Mike loved driving a cab. He liked taking people where they wanted to go. In January 2002, he picked up a group of five looking for a ride to Lola’s in Oak Bluffs. It was business as usual until he got about halfway there. “I started to feel funny,” Mike said. “I mean, really funny.”
He took a right into Lola’s parking lot and tried to call to the group climbing out from the backseat, but no words left his mouth. “That was it,” he said, “I was out.”
Mike woke up about two and a half days later at Spaulding Hospital in Boston. He had suffered a severe stroke that left his right side numb, his speech gone, and his mind “like a 4-year-old kid,” he said.
A stroke is often called a “brain attack.” It happens when the blood flow to the brain is cut off and cells are deprived of oxygen, so they die. When cells die, they lose their function and disrupt major parts of the brain that control memory, movement, and speech. Since Mike’s stroke occurred on the left side of his brain, Mike lost function on the right side of his body. According to the American Stroke Association, a stroke on the left side of the brain produces effects such as paralysis, speech problems, a slower, cautious behavior style, and memory loss.
“When doctors explained to me what happened, they told me, ‘Blah, blah, blah,’” Mike said. “That’s all I heard.”
The technicalities never stuck with Mike. He was more focused on moving forward and paying the bills. After about three months in the hospital attending speech therapy, physical therapy — and with no health insurance — he was sent home.
When Mike came home, the Island embraced him. Friends offered him homes, and people offered him jobs, despite his disabilities. But Mike’s recovery was a steep hill to climb.
“I was forgetting things I knew,” he said. “I’d see a truck, and I knew it was a truck, but I couldn’t find the word. It drove me nuts.”
It took Mike about two years to get his speech back on track, and the total paralysis on his right side put him in an electric wheelchair. He worked at Mink Meadows Golf Course for two years, and then at the Vineyard Transit Authority, where he’s worked for the past six years.
Although Mike’s life is drastically different, there are aspects of it that remain the same. He still has a job that keeps him in touch with the community, he still gets stopped by familiar faces everywhere he goes, and he still plans trips to Steamboat Springs, Nev., every winter. Despite his chair and a permanently numb right side, he carries on.
“If I have a problem, I deal with it myself. It’s just me. But that’s the way I like it,” said Mike.
Few of his holdups these days even have much to do with mobility. Like so many of us, he’s mostly just trying to pay the bills and keep himself entertained in the meantime.
“So I have posters,” he said; “I love posters.” He has about 1,000 of them stacked throughout his apartment. He buys them brand-new, for the lowest prices, and they’re cool. He sells them at the VTA in Edgartown, and sometimes he’s spotted selling them on Circuit Avenue. He’d love to get a business going someday, but he fears how increasingly difficult that’s becoming on the Island. Mike will be the first one to tell you times have changed.
“Things are different,” he said, unlike 20 years ago. Mike believes housing is impossible on Martha’s Vineyard, businesses are monopolized, and there’s no middle ground between those who have money and those who don’t.
“There are good people on the Island who are in very bad shape,” he said. “I’m really worried about what’s going to happen not only on the Vineyard, but everywhere in the country.”
It’s been 14 years since Mike’s stroke. Today, he wishes he got out a little more. He wishes he kept in better touch with old friends. He wishes the bills were easier to pay, and he wishes he could give money to those who need it more than he does.
“I live a good life, and I’ll continue to,” he said, “but there’s always more to do.”