Almost a year after recovering from serious injuries sustained in an accident, Cedar Hardware owner and beloved community member Rich Zywicki is doing better than anyone could hope for. Jen, Zywicki’s wife, said while he may not be back to 100% due to suffering from his traumatic brain injury, his family is just grateful to have him home.
“I call him now my ‘Spicy Rich’… I don’t think we’re ever going to make it to 100%, but we’re close. In his mind, nothing happened to him, so he doesn’t see a personality change. The fact that he can speak, he can communicate, he can walk, talk, remembers people, not everyone, but remembers a majority of his life, is a huge blessing and a miracle,” Jen said. “Those first weeks were rough though, back then it was second to second, minute to minute, hour to hour, day to day, then week to week and month to month. Someday, I know we’ll get to a point where I can look at year to year, but right now, on that timeline, I would say if you’re doing anything with a brain injury, that’s how you’re looking at it. It’s seconds, minutes, to hours… Those first 60 days felt like a lot of hours.”
Jen has been writing weekly updates via Rich’s GoFundMe page since the accident occurred last year in September, documenting his long healing journey and progress made every step of the way. Zywicki was in the ICU from Sept. 2 through the 25th, when he was later moved to a long term acute care hospital in Grand Rapids. As he slowly recovered, Zywicki was eventually discharged on Nov. 1 — a 60-day turnaround from the time of the accident.
