Maria Odenkirk. The Mobility Queen.

Maria Odenkirk's Story

CH. 1 | Maria’s Story

On February 25th of 2018, my world changed forever. I had a massive hemorrhagic stroke that left me partially paralyzed on my left side.   My world turned completely upside down. In the last 5 years I’ve had a very scary, humbling journey. Hospitals, rehabilitation facilities and learning a whole new

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CH. 2 | The Event

The Event- night of February 25, 2018 In order to fully understand the cause of the stroke, I need to be transparent about what was going on in my life at that time. First of all, I have high blood pressure and I had a very demanding job. I was

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Ch. 3 | Recovery Begins

Well, I finally got settled at MJ – here is a pic of me about 2 weeks in – I’m utterly exhausted from therapy. This pic was taken mid afternoon, post therapy and I was definitely headed for a nap.   If you closely at this picture you will notice the water

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Ch. 4 | Upright Learning to Walk

This picture is probably 3 weeks into learning to walk, and there were manychallenges starting with no feeling in my leg and foot so learning to positionmy foot without looking at it all the time was extremely difficult. The othermain struggle is the lack of strength. I’m not talking about

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In The Spotlight

Sailing, Yes I said Sailing !

Judd Goldman has everything for any kind of disability. They have Hoyer lift, slid boards and several capable people to safely get disabled people on and off the boats. It is located at Burnham Harbor in the city operated through the Chicago Park District. Check out the website and put

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Horse riding therapy.

Therapeutic Horse Riding

At ManeGait in McKinney Texas, children and adults with disabilities movebeyond their boundaries through the healing power of the horse and thededication of a professional, caring community.Founded in 2007 by business and community leaders Bill and Priscilla LewisDarling and their daughter, Landon Darling Schneider, ManeGait has had theprivilege of serving

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Shirley Ryan Ability Lab

The SR Lab is not only the leader in rehabilitation but also has extensive and research including clinical trials. Even if you cannot physically go to the main facility on Erie in Chicago or one of their suburban locations, their main website is full of information and contacts for all

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Pictures with Purpose

Meet beautiful young Shaena. The face of rheumatoid arthritis- RA. She has to wear these tension gloves all the time to keep her fingers straight, in addition to suffering in pain often. Rockstar Determination

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Meet Bella-Boo

Hello Everyone, My name is Bella and I am eight years old. I’ll be nine in December, at least that’s what they tell me. I’m a mutt. I know I have Chihuahua in me and some kind of terrier, but nobody is really sure what kind. My mom (Maria) rescued

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