Michael Roberts

Michael Roberts has recently written a few articles for the Stroke Network. This has been as much therapy for him as anything else. Last week, a stranger reminded him how lucky he is while he was waiting for a taxicab. The stranger correctly deduced that Michael had had a right hemisphere stroke from his gait and cramped left arm. She told him that many people who have that sort of stroke don't recover their speech for a long time Luckily for him, Michael's speech and language capabilities weren't long or permanently impaired.

Michael is a poet and writer and is still hoping for a heavyweight title shot. Several friends in the Word Warriors, a multicultural writers group which Michael is a member of, visited him while he was in the rehabilitation unit at St. Joseph's Hospital. One, an English professor, was quick to note that Michael was still able to correct her grammar. That's the kind of hairpin he is.

Michael is half Indian and half Green Beret. You have to know his father to appreciate the latter. Enough with the family tree. That could generate several other stories. Easily. Suffice to say, Michael was born in Milwaukee after a 20 hour labor on the hottest day of the year while his father was finishing jump school at Fort Benning. He is the second of ten children. He is a librarian by profession. His older brother is a cop. They both graduated from a small high school in Minocqua, Wisconsin

Michael started college at UW-Madison in 1968. His brother returned to Milwaukee and started a family. His brother plays golf. Michael collects comic books. After an onerously long, undistinguished and colorful undergraduate career, he eventually earned a Bachelor of Arts General degree at UW Milwaukee.

While in Madison , he did learn to love his wife Linda well enough to bicycle over mountains and through deserts with her. They did this on their honeymoon. It's easier than recovering from a stroke. It is no coincidence that Nixon resigned within a week of their arrival in DC. Naturally urban legends about Michael abound. All true.

Michael and Linda have three children. After the last time that Michael recounted the kids adventures, a classmate from New Zealand exclaimed" Jesus! A family of bloody geniuses!! Michael accidentally wound up in Who's Who instead of dying in Vietnam. He owns the two dumbest dogs in the world.

Here's a poem Michael wrote when he was in the hospital. He was 'lucky' and had a corner room with windows overlooking the city.

<i>The View From Here

Snow on the flat roof

across the street

tree in east window

four paper fish above</i>

Michael passed away August 2010.