Hank grew up on a farm in Eugene near Fern Ridge Lake, and fondly remembers working with his mother at Decker
Nursery planting Christmas trees as a child. Tragically, his mother died from cancer when Hank was just fifteen.
Shortly afterwards, just before his high school graduation, Hank endured a
serious car accident that left him with permanent short-term memory loss and severe seizures.

Before he found ShelterCare, Hank lived for seven or eight years at the Eugene Mission, where he slept on military-style bunk beds in a room with 350 other people. Staff at the mission feared for Hank’s life because of his frequent seizures and his constant battle with alcoholism. Hank remembers he would often wake up either in a hospital or in jail after a night of heavy drinking. Then one day Hank met Wally Earl.

Wally had just established ShelterCare’s Uhlhorn program, a support residence for individuals living with the effects of traumatic brain injury. The program’s apartments were designed with the needs of residents in mind, with memory-aiding features such as cupboards without doors and stoves with automatic shut-off timers. Since becoming one of Uhlhorn’s first residents fifteen years ago, Hank has not had one drop of alcohol thanks to support from ShelterCare, treatment at Serenity Lane, and his relationship with God. Now he is receiving the right medications to manage his seizures and the effects of his brain injury. Seven years ago, Hank graduated to greater independence by becoming one of the first residents of River Kourt Apartments, a ShelterCare program for survivors of brain injury who are able to live more independently.

Hank says people ask him, after all that has happened to him, why doesn’t anything bother him, how does he always keep a smile on his face? Hank just smiles at them and says, “Well, why should you get upset? There’s just no good reason.”

Hank enjoys life at River Kourt. He spends much of his time walking and learning to prepare sugarless food to control his diabetes. On the walls of his immaculate apartment hang several beautiful string art pictures of big boats and airplanes that Hank has painstakingly crafted. Hank keeps his mind active by completing word find puzzles; he is able to finish one in just under two minutes. He still relies on staff to help him with his medications, but is now able to take some of them on his own. Hank is proud of the fact that while he used to smoke four packs of cigarettes a day, he now smokes less than that in a whole month.

“ShelterCare has made me real,” Hank says. “They gave me a heart and soul and body. The freedom and the love that you get from everybody, you never have to worry about getting your toes stepped on or getting barked at. Hey, I’m free, and it’s the most beautiful feeling in the world. Uhlhorn is family. If I didn’t have it, I would have been gone a long time ago.”