06/22/2026
Many of you know that we close the store early on Sundays to give us time to have our family dinner together. While things are very different from our normal routine, we were lucky enough today to get to spend the afternoon with Dad and have dinner together again. Our last family dinner was in the middle of April, before Dad decided to take a vacation in the hospital! Many of you have asked for an update, so here is the condensed version of the last 2 months. While on vacation in Nashville, Dad started showing some weakness in his lower limbs. After driving through the night to get back home (John drove, not Dad) we brought Dad straight to Dartmouth Hitchcock. His weakness progressed to full body paralysis that affected everything including his respiratory function. It was a tough first couple of weeks as the symptoms worsened, complications piled on and test after test and procedure after procedure didnt provide any answers. After several weeks in NeuroCritical and Neuro Special Care, Dad was stable enough to move to the normal neurology floor. Things pointed towards something autoimmune, so that's the course of treatment that was followed. About 4 weeks after arriving at Dartmouth, Dad was able to wiggle a finger on his right hand! He has now regained limited movement in both hands and feet and is able to move his head and shrug his shoulders. DHMC finally settled on a diagnosis of transverse myelitis, an autoimmune condition that in rare cases can cause full body paralysis. The cause of transverse myelitis is not known and could be triggered by a virus or bacteria or who knows! Last Thursday, after nearly 2 months, Dad was discharded from DHMC and was moved to the Mountain View Center in Rutland where he will begin rehab treatments. It will be months to years before we will know what functions he will recover and to what degree. So please keep your positive thoughts and well wishes coming! We are thankful to everyone who has reached out and our staff who have stepped in and kept the store going while we were caring for Dad. We hope to see you all again soon- The Claflin family - John Claflin Joey Jean Claflin Ruth A. Claflin Jennifer Hadwen