Brent Mather

Welcome to our CaringBridge website.It's been a rough year, hopefully 2018 will be better and healthier! For those that don't know, I had a stroke in January 2017 and a life-threatening seizure in September 2017. I've spent approximately six weeks in intensive care the last year and about two weeks on life support, ventilator and feeding tube. Ugh.


I am 58 years-old and in otherwise good health, good enough anyway. My stroke was 'mild' to moderately severe. My long-term memory is very good, working memory is terrible, but I have no problems speaking or breathing. The on-going effects are somewhat complicated; I am unsteqdy, have permanent visual 'deficiencies', no perpipheral vision at all, and have voluntarily stopped driving. It's just not safe. I also have cognitive effects such as a short attention span, inability to concentrate for longer than 10-minutes at a time. My problem solving ability is impaired, but if I proceed slowly and deliberately, I can complete complex forms such as an application for retirement, social security disability forms, and simple tax forms. The unexpected effect was the emotional impact of recovery and my mental health has been a significant challenge, but we're figuring that out too.

I spent 24-years as a Chemical Officer in the Army Reserve and retired as a Major with couple successful Commands and one-tour in Iraq. My current civilian job is with Army North at Ft Sam Houston. I'm trained as a communications specialist with training in response to weapons of mass destruction. I evaluate and train Soldiers to respond to terrorism involving chemical, biological, and radiological weapons. I am applying for retirement from the Federal Civil Service because of the travel, and the work is too hard for my current abilities; programing radios, calculating radiological contamination, etc. March31st!


Fortunately, I have the luxury of a couple retirement annuitities that will meet our basic needs. Nothing fancy, but we'll be able to pay the mortgage (that'll make Chase Bank happy!).


More to follow!