COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—During four years in the Marine Corps, Tena Quackenbush learned the military creed that no fallen comrade gets left behind. Today, she’s living that creed as she cares for Scott Burns, disabled from his exposure to Agent Orange during his service in the Navy during the Vietnam War era.
It’s an unlikely pairing: Tena, 44, the bartender from Wisconsin, and Scott, 56, the disabled vet from Illinois. They were neighbors in a low-income apartment complex on University Drive, near South Academy Boulevard and Airport Road.
Scott was the guy who liked to barbecue and was quick to offer rides to his neighbors, like Tena.
“We were neighbors about five years,” she said. “I was in the Marine Corps. He was Navy. We just bonded.
“He’d take me to work every night. And he’d barbecue every night, no matter how bad the weather was. I love barbecue, so we became friends. He’s such a nice guy.”
Then he started getting sick. He needed to see specialists in Denver, but he could no longer drive.
With no family to help him, Tena volunteered to take him to his appointments.
“There was no one else to help him,” she said.
The news from the doctors was not good. A year ago, Scott was diagnosed with ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, an incurable degenerative disease that slowly cripples its victims and ends in death. It’s also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
As his condition rapidly deteriorated, Tena did what she learned in the Marines. She hoisted her fallen comrade.
“There was nobody else,” she said with a shrug. “The day he was diagnosed, I promised him I’d be his family. I promised him I wouldn’t let him die in that apartment building. And I promised I’d get him his last rites.”
In becoming Scott’s primary caregiver, Tena lost her own boyfriend: “He said he couldn’t handle it.”
Tena has soldiered on alone. She had to get Scott out of the cramped apartment, so she found a place in the Monument Creek Mobile Home Park. She said its wide hallways and open floor plan accommodate his wheelchair.
And it seems to suit his three black cats: Liberty, Freedom and Justice.
Tena has moved in, too, providing around-the-clock care.
To make Scott comfortable, she hung an American flag in his bedroom. Then she searched the Internet for train buffs to help her build tracks for model trains she bought him.
“He loves trains and I wanted to put them around the house for him,” Tena said.
So she found some train clubs—the Rocky Mountain G Scalers and the Slimrail Model Railway Club—whose members came running when she asked.
A team led by Ray Hoppes built an elevated train that runs the perimeter of Scott’s bedroom and G Scaler president Margaret Barber painted a scenic mural on the wall. They also built a table-top set that Scott can see from his bed. (Photos are on my blog.)
As Tena praised them for their kindness, giving up their evenings to build Scott’s trains, Margaret turned the praise back on her.
“Tena is the hero here,” she said. “Not us. Make sure Tena is the hero of this story.”
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Information from: The Gazette,
