Life has taken Tom Seeman many places in his 86 years. He grew up on a farm in Minnesota and moved to Crystal Lake, Illinois, as a 16-year-old dual-sport athlete in football and basketball. At a coach’s urging, Tom also tried out for wrestling—a suggestion that would lead him to the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Hall of Fame and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Together with his wife, Carol, Tom welcomed four children, nine grandchildren, and traveled to 60 countries and all seven continents.

“I consider myself the luckiest woman in the world to have married who I did,” Carol says. “For me it truly was love at first sight. It was just meant to be.”

About a year ago, however, Tom’s journey took an unexpected turn. After living with Parkinson’s disease for 16 years, his health began to deteriorate to the point where Carol could no longer care for him at home. With at-home physical therapy, Tom remained remarkably strong and mobile, even able to walk backwards heel-to-toe. But Carol couldn’t leave Tom alone without him wanting to call 911, even when she went to get the mail or into the next room.

Tom moved into a nearby rehabilitation facility last fall. But after a few months, the staff changed his medications—and the kind, beloved husband, father, teacher and coach turned violent. He was hospitalized for several weeks, becoming so weak that he entered hospice care and his family moved him into Bickford of Crystal Lake.

“I did the assessment myself,” remembers Lisa Watkins, family advocate at Bickford of Crystal Lake. “I went to the hospital, and honestly I didn’t think he was ever going to make it to the community. He wasn’t responding. They didn’t have him dressed. He was curled up in the fetal position.”

But Tom did make it to Bickford, and once there the team came up with a plan. They weaned him off the medications that were sapping his energy and listened to Carol about how strong he had been just a few months before.

“I think just being out of the hospital, being pushed around, seeing more people and having activity around him, you could see slowly right from the start that he was progressing,” Carol says. Tom became a focus of Bickford’s weekly HigherPath meetings, and he started physical and occupational therapy with the in-house Fox Therapy team.

“All of a sudden his eyes are opening, he’s chatting, talking, trying to get out of bed,” Lisa recalls. “It is really amazing how quickly things happened once he got on that higher path, with people really listening to his wife.”

Tom found his appetite and regained his ability to feed himself, first with purees and later with soft foods. The dining staff tailored whatever was on the menu to Tom’s needs, making favorites like pureed pie, mashed potatoes and even a softer version of a rueben sandwich.

“He is a good eater,” Carol says. “He looks forward to the meals and he has never complained to me about one thing.” As Tom built back strength, he and his caregivers set their sights on another goal: Walking. Despite his rapid decline, it hadn’t been that long since Tom had been mobile, and Carol and his therapists set about getting him back on his feet.

“He was so determined to get out of that wheelchair and walk to his wife,” Lisa says. “I’ll never forget when he first took a few steps.” A few steps turned into a walk of the hallway, a whole lap of the building, and recently a two-day Seeman family reunion celebrated at Bickford, with more than 20 family members and the rest of the branch residents.

“It was baby steps, but he kept going forward,” Lisa says. “His expression when he’s walking is so different than when he’s sitting in that wheelchair. It’s self confidence.”

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