Taking Care of Teena and Gene

“An old crow and a cute chick live here.”

So reads a sign hanging from the shed of Gene and Linten Baker of Logansport. The love birds moved into their tri-level house with their two daughters in 1978. Two decades later, after fifty-four years of marriage, Mrs. Baker suffered from an atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat that caused a blood clot. The episode left her whole right side paralyzed, her speech severely limited, her peripheral vision lost, and her ability to track her gaze impaired. “It was three years ago, August 22, at Bob Evans,” Gene remembers. “Ten after seven.”

Although Gene was born and raised in Logansport, his wife was originally from Pennington Gap, Virginia. She moved to Logansport along with her sister and brother-in-law to get away from the coal mines. Linten got a job at Porter’s Drugs on East Broadway across from the City Building.

Mr. Baker sits in a recliner across from Linten in their front room, describing the big tables and wire chairs near the soda counter, just how they looked before Porter’s Drugs burned down along with J.C Penny in 1966. He smiles, explaining how his wife got her nickname, Teena:

“The people who owned it took a liking to her and changed it...”

Teena listens, murmuring agreement or smiling occasionally as Gene tells their story. Teena had babysat for a lady that attended the same church as Gene at the time. “I had a little car with split manifold on it - six cylinder,” he says. “She was infatuated with that kid in the little green car.” The church friend tried to convince Gene to go out with Teena on a blind date, but he wasn’t going to do that, sight unseen. He didn’t hold out for long, however, and on July 16, 1959 the couple were married.

Gene and Teena built their lives together in Logansport. Mr. Baker worked at Wilson Foods for twenty-four years, and later at Wabash National for ten. He also worked at St. Joseph’s before it was Miller’s Merry Manor. After her time at Porter’s, Mrs. Baker worked at the state hospital where she was a dietary aid for twenty-five years. “If we were out eating and she saw a hair on the plate, that was the end of dinner,” her husband says about her dedication to mealtime sanitation.

As the Bakers reminisce, their oldest daughter, Rebecca, comes to the door for a visit. Gene shares how after retirement he knew he had to work somewhere, part time, so he worked at Sears Robuck.

“Did he work at Sears to get out of your hair?” Rebecca teases her mother. Teena assumes a serious tone and answers: “Noooo.”

Rebecca jokes about how her mother wore a hole in the floor of the family car, trying to press an imaginary brake when Gene would drive too fast. But she proudly acknowledges that her parents were always a team. “You couldn’t do the ‘mom said yes’ to dad, or the ‘dad said yes’ to mom kind of thing… you couldn’t play them one against the other,” Rebecca recounts. “But I’ll have to say dad was usually probably the softer touch.” Her parents were always positive about learning and independence. Rebecca remembers that in first grade she received a little magazine from school called the Weekly Reader. She explains that children could order items from the back of the educational periodical as well as sell things. “One year I sold greeting cards and got this doll you could walk while holding the hand.” She learned responsibility from Gene and Teena as they taught their daughters that if there was something they wanted they could save up their allowance or they could work for it. “But if we came up short” Rebecca grins, “they would sometimes make up the difference.”

Education has always been important to the Bakers. Rebecca remembers how she and her younger sister, Karen, participated in summer reading programs each year when they were out of school. Mr. Baker chimes in with his daughter: “We always encouraged book reading and learning. Every time we went to the grocery we’d buy them a Little Golden Book.”

The Bakers buy groceries on Thursdays now. But it was when they were out to eat one night that their lives were forever changed. They had just finished their meal at Bob Evans when Teena began to act strangely. She was leaning over to one side in her chair and Gene couldn’t get her to respond. They called 911.

Mrs. Baker was taken to Logansport Memorial Hospital. Within five days of the event she was sent to rehab in Lafayette, where she received therapy twice a day. She was only there a few days when they realized the stroke was progressing. She was scanned for a second time at IU Health, where the doctor showed Mr. Baker pictures of the stroke in the brain. She returned to rehab and then to the Arbor in Logansport for thirty days before she was finally able to return home.

Misunderstanding how long her stay would be, Mrs. Baker thought she only had three days to wait before going home. “There was no way she could have come home in three days,” Mr. Baker says. “This home wasn’t ready for handicap. No chair lift, no hospital bed.” Staff from the Arbor came in with a clip board to check off what adjustments needed to be made to their house.

Wyndi Thompson, registered nurse with Angels of Mercy, the agency that serviced the Bakers after Teena’s release, shares that sometimes it’s difficult when a patient is bound and determined to make it at home. According to Thompson, Teena is blessed. “It really depends on the health level of the patient and it depends on the care that they have at home,” she says. “He’s very supportive of her and she’s very fortunate to have him. A lot of people don’t have that much help and some don’t have any help.” Thompson is the manager on the community resource side of Angels of Mercy, formerly Memorial Home Health and Hospice. Thompson says, “One of our goals is to get the patient back to being as independent as possible.”

Thankfully, the Bakers were able to take one more step toward that independence. They bought a handicap-accessible van from the family of a friend who had suffered from a heart attack a few years prior to Teena’s blood clot, and passed away in February of this year. Pauline Carbaugh, retired teacher and wife to optometrist Dr. Harold Carbaugh, attended East Main Street Church of God with the Bakers.

“We just became friends with her,” Mr. Baker says about “Polly,” who gained their respect. “I was one of the few people who could get along with her cat. They’d call it ‘The Cat from Elm Street.’” He shakes his head as he recalls the ferocious feline.

When Polly had her stroke, Gene and Teena helped out as caregivers. Little did he know, Gene was “in training” when going to help out at Polly’s. He was the man to call when Polly needed to be transported from chair to chair, as he was the only one with the physical strength. Polly regained much of her speech after time and later visited Teena in the hospital after her blood clot. Even so, the verbal communication wasn’t what it once was between the two friends. But as Teena had suffered paralysis on her right side and Polly on her left, the women would face each other and hold hands, simply smiling and being together, communicating in their own special way.

Part of the physical therapy was to teach Mrs. Baker to use her left hand to eat. Mr. Baker shares how there are special cups and plates available, but Teena doesn’t like to use them. She’s figured out how to eat in a new way. She also works around her speech impairment, sometimes finding her voice.

“I told her a while ago ‘I love you,’” Mr. Baker brags about his wife. “And she said ‘Love you, too.’ It’s spontaneous. We have our words we practice.”

“It’s tough when you’re at home and you’re dealing with the medical care, and the physical and emotional care and then you have all this legal stuff to deal with,” Rebecca says. “I feel bad for people who don’t have anyone to read through it.”

Devon Rufin, a Marketing and Community Outreach member at Senior Helpers would agree. “The biggest struggle I see people deal with is that they think they have to do it alone,” she says. “They’re not sure what resources are out there, how they can get help, how in the world they can even keep that same love.” To help the public access these resources, Senior Helpers attends Senior Day at Mary Max Cinemas, along with Guardian Angel Hospice, YMCA, and Chace Center. “We direct them to which movie they want to go to and answer questions.” Senior Helpers has been contacted by movie-goers after a showing who then ask about help for a loved one.

Gene Baker puts those concerns into words, but he stays positive. “There are days it’s not bad at all. Some days can be stressful.” He talks about having a constant routine all day, every day. “In a way you surrender your life to take care of hers.” Mr. Baker says, “When I don’t know how to take care of something I think I’m letting her down. She tells me I’m not.” Though much has changed for the Bakers, they say their love has remained the same.

Mrs. Baker just smiles with her eyes and Mr. Baker knows this “cute chick” has full confidence in her “old crow.”

~ Originally published in print, in 2016 edition of Heartland magazine