Jennifer and Trevor were high school sweethearts. He was her first high school boyfriend. Life happened and Trevor moved away, and they lost touch.
In 2011, Jennifer was online looking up old friends and she found Trevor. He was married, had three children, and lived in Ottawa. A few years later, Jennifer came across his profile again and saw that Trevor had been diagnosed with ALS. That was a weird coincidence, because Jennifer had been spending more and more time volunteering with the Walk to End ALS. She knew what an ALS diagnosis meant, and that Trevor might not have much time left, so she reached out.
Trevor was happy to hear from her so Jennifer took her son up to Ottawa to visit and they kept in touch. In 2016, Jennifer organized a fundraiser to help Trevor and his family buy a van, which he now required given his limited mobility. A few weeks before the big event, Trevor called to say he would be attending alone. His marriage was ending.
After the fundraiser, Trevor ended up moving to London, closer to Jennifer. He still had some mobility in his wheelchair—and he could eat and talk, and he kept his own place with the help of a PSW. But that December, his condition took a turn for the worse and Trevor spent six weeks in the hospital. Owing to respiratory failure, he received a tracheotomy and would now require 24/7 care. When he left the hospital, Trevor moved in with Jennifer.
Since then, the pair have lived together happily ever after—in spite of the challenges that Trevor faces every day and the sad reality that they cannot plan a distant future together, one of the many things that ALS takes away.
They’ve been married twice, a surprise City Hall wedding with both of their sons, planned by Jennifer to cheer Trevor up during a particularly hard time, and then a celebration with friends and family a year later. They moved into a bungalow, with a much better layout for someone with ALS and they’ve brought their two lives together.
And ever since Trevor came home from the hospital that cold January day back in 2017, ProResp was there to make his life as comfortable as possible. “Caitlin is amazing. We love her very much,” said Jennifer of their ProResp Respiratory Therapist. “If we need Caitlin, she is there, and that means so much.
Jennifer thinks their reunion, all these years after high school, was written in the stars. “We lost touch physically, but we kept in touch psychically for 28 years. It was meant to be,” she told us.
Thank you, Jennifer and Trevor for sharing your story with us. We are so proud to be a part of your lives.