No More Free Rides

In the summer of 1989, I was a musician and I was playing in the evenings at a local watering hole in Whitehorse, Yukon. After a gig one night--and a bout of heavy drinking--I had a stroke. I was rushed to the hospital and overnight I almost died. The next morning I was medevacked to a hospital in Vancouver and placed in the hospital's intensive care unit. Again, I had another close brush with death. But I pulled through and two weeks later I was released. However, as a result of the stroke, I was partially paralyzed on my right side, could barely walk and had no motor movement to my left hand.