S Clay Wilson was trying to get home from a friend’s house November 1, 2008, the night his life changed. We will never be certain if he fell or was attacked, since he has no memory of it. The numerous injuries on his face and head made him look like he was beat up. Two good samaritans found him unconscious between parked cars, face down in the rain, and called an ambulance. (I have tried to find them in order to express my gratitude for saving his life, but have had no success.) He’d suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury, bleeding in three hemispheres of his brain. He spent three weeks in a coma, and we had no idea how severely impaired he was for many months. Once he began to speak again we realized he hadn’t just “awakened” to resume life as it had been before.

We’d been flirting since we met in 1968. I have been living with him now for ten years, visited him every day for the year he was in the hospital, and brought him home to take care of November 10, 2009. This is a daunting task, but one I am devoted to.

The days he spends drawing are his happiest, but I don’t nag when he chooses not to work. He has done about 15 drawings since last summer, and still has  incredible talent.  He loves movies, so we haunt the libraries, renting up to 20 at a time. We usually begin viewing them in the late afternoon. We exercise every day, take walks, and friends sometimes take him to lunch, museums, or art shows.

He is very quiet now after being a motor mouth all his life. But he is not a blank slate. His short term memory is shot, and with aphasia, often has trouble expressing himself. (I frequently “put words in his mouth” to help him but he’s usually able to tell me if I got it wrong.)

I have put together a Special Needs Trust for him since he is no longer capable of earning a living. He will need 24 hour care from now on since the little details of daily life are a mystery to him now, and he is easily confused. This gifted artist worked as hard as he partied and was a playful, brilliant person.  Although he is still capable of worrying about the future, he does not fully understand what has happened to alter it. He is now in need of  help. This is a tragic turn of events for a proud man.

The Trust is set up so it can only be spent on him. We pool our meager resources for basic expenses. I hope people will find a way to donate what they can to give him a better quality of life and assist in his ongoing care.

The address of the Trust is www.sclaywilsontrust.com

Or mail to PO Box 14854 San Francisco CA 94114

Thank you!

Lorraine Chamberlain