But that’s OK.
At least she’s alive.
“We will give special thanks with our special lady,” said her husband of 42 years, Bob Evick. “It will be wonderful to celebrate with my wife here. I mean, really here, physically and spiritually.”
What he called “a journey” for the Madison Twp. couple started on Oct. 8, 2021, when Terri, a retired elementary school teacher who was subbing in the Lakota District, became violently sick to her stomach for 15 hours.
She wasn’t afraid to die at the time, she told God. Instead, she prayed for “extra time” to watch her grandchildren grow up.
Evick was transported to West Chester Hospital because her gall stones had invaded her pancreas. The family had no idea what the future would hold.
“We figured it would not be a big deal,” her husband said. “Two days she’d be back on her feet.”
They couldn’t have been more wrong.
Since that day more than 25 months ago, the 63-year-old mother of three has been admitted and discharged from hospitals countless times, hospitalized for 403 days and survived numerous serious surgeries, including open heart.
Doctors determined her pancreatic fluids had backed up causing her pancreas to “explode,” her husband said. The fluids deteriorated her arteries, veins, intestines, and colon, he said.
“She was in bad shape,” Bob Evick said softly. “It was very scary at times when we thought she wasn’t going to make it.”
She spent months in the Intensive Care Unit at University of Cincinnati Hospital, then was transported to UC Health Drake Center for physical rehabilitation.
Later, when her blood wasn’t circulating correctly, surgeons clamped her arteries and veins in hopes of redirecting the blood flow to her vital organs.
“She wasn’t going to make it,” her husband said.
Then he added: “She managed to pull through.”
Another time, she required a second surgery.
The surgeon told the family he watched on the monitor as the blood began flowing, creating “a giant heart,” Bob Evick said. “This was unbelievable. Only God could provide it in the shape of a heart. That was a great day.”
Another scare came on June 29, 2023 when a team of surgeons rearranged some organs in her abdomen during a 12-hour procedure. Three weeks later, it was discovered she had heart valve issues and required open heart surgery.
Bob Evick retired as Madison High School’s baseball coach after 23 seasons when he kept getting calls at practice from his wife’s medical team. That’s when he decided he had to step away from the diamond because his wife had provided “a great support system” during his coaching career, he said.
“It was time to take care of her,” said Evick, who added they met while students at Monroe High School.
In May, the Madison district named the baseball diamond the “Evick Family Field.”
Throughout the last two years, the Evick family used social media to keep family and friends updated on Evick’s medical progress. There have been nearly 90 updates.
“She gave a lot of strength to people to overcome issues too,” he said.
Terri Evick returned home earlier this month and last week, spoke to the congregation at Breiel Church, to the same people who have supported the family for two years. The members gave her two standing ovations, she said.
“It felt like I was back home,” she said of her first time at church since May 2023.
Bob Evick, a Madison teacher, thanked the church and the “prayer warriors” around the world.
“That’s all we could lean on,” he said when asked about the family’s faith. “We just wanted to make it through the next day.”
Before bed, the couple prays “for another day, and gives thanks for every day,” he said.
The family also has received financial support from the Madison community and beyond.
Church members drop off meals two or three times a week, two vehicles have been donated, an HVAC system installed and friends and strangers hand them checks.
“Humbled and overwhelmed,” is how Terri described the support.
She probably will feel the same emotions on Thanksgiving when she’s surrounded by her children Robbie, 42, Tyler, 39 and Kassie, 37, and six grandchildren.
“I cherish every minute I have on this earth now,” she said. “You can’t take your health for granted. It can change so quickly.”
About the Author