Beloved organist makes incredible recovery
Following a stroke March 1 and some hard work, retired First United Church music director is back
WATERLOO — Following a serious stroke on March 1, Jan Overduin imagined the rest of his life would be spent in a wheelchair and he no longer would be able to sit at the magnificent pipe organs he has spent a lifetime playing.
But miracles do happen, particularly when you have an iron will and a supportive family.
“When I got to the hospital, I had to learn to sit in a wheelchair,” said the 75-year-old. “Within one month, I walked out of there.”
The retired music director of First United Church in Waterloo and busy recitalist is, in his words, “90 per cent back to normal.”
Not that the average listener would notice. Overduin plays at such a high level that even missing 10 per cent, his abilities far exceed most organists. On Sunday, he will perform the Canadian premier of “Fantastica Apocalyptica,” at First United Church, a concert he cancelled following the stroke.
“I couldn’t play, I couldn’t type on a computer,” he said. “I cancelled all the concerts.”
Overduin recalls with clarity March 1, a bitter winter night when his legs felt numb and tingly and his mind raced. He didn’t feel quite right but the thought he was having a stroke never occurred to him. So he got up and walked around but it didn’t help. By 3 a.m., he knew he was in trouble and “started making some noise” to alert his family.
Luckily, his son, Simon Overduin, is a medical doctor and was asleep in nearby room. He knew immediately what was happening and called an ambulance.
The time had passed for medical staff to administer clot busting drugs, which he couldn’t take anyway because he was on blood thinners. Although Overduin still had some mobility when he arrived in emergency, by morning he was unable to move.
Overduin spent the next four days in hospital before he was transferred to St. Joseph’s Health Centre in Guelph, the only facility that had a bed available in a rehabilitation unit.
“It didn’t hit me until I walked into the hospital and saw the stroke patients’ sign,” said his wife, Margaret, who would spend nights sleeping in uncomfortable chairs, never leaving her husband’s room. The couple have been married 55 years. They met two years after they arrived in Canada from Holland.
“Ours is an old-fashioned marriage; you marry for life,” said Margaret, adding her commitment was without question despite thought of a grim future.
Overduin had a lot going for him. An active squash player, hiker, canoeist and cyclist, he was fit. And the couple has five children who rallied to his side even though most live outside Canada. Simon came every day to give his father physio as did each of the siblings, taking turns spending a week at their father’s bedside.
And then there were all those friends and fans.
“So many people wanted to visit me; but when I wasn’t exercising, I was asleep,” he said.
Overduin instead kept everyone up-to-date through the website caringbridge.org.
When he discovered that there was a small organ in one of the hospital’s wards, he was able to wheel himself to the keyboard.
“I’d play a little bit,” he said. “It was really touching to now see those videos. I could hardly lift my left arm to play. It was pretty humbling, devastating.”
Day after day, he would command his muscles to move, and then one day, they did.
While he still can’t drive, Overduin’s life is pretty much back to normal. He’s playing squash, riding his bike and hiking, and when he climbed onto the bench behind First United Church’s Gabriel Kney organ, an instrument he helped install, he became emotional.
“That felt so good, it’s like an old friend,” he said.
Overduin is still in recovery. After the First United concert, he will perform Nov. 18 at the St. Matthews Lutheran Church refugee fund concert in Kitchener. He will play with the duo of Rev. Sebastian Meadows-Helmer and his father, Paul Helmer. Then he will take a break. His wife knows it takes unyielding determination to keep going, but it is possible.
“When his fingers started moving, we couldn’t believe it,” she said. “We cried.”
Overduin added: “My faith was so strong that I’d play again, and here I am.”