Michael Bennett never imagined he'd grow up to be a writer, but after two consecutive strokes in 2019 left him disabled at 61, the former contractor turned to storytelling for physical and emotional rehabilitation.

"The whole thing started with the strokes," said Bennett from Oroville, California, the United States. "I was looking for ways to regain cognitive ability and some dexterity."

The strokes left Bennett partially paralysed on his right side and blind in the left side of both his eyes. He also developed atrial fibrillation and started taking nine medications a day to manage the condition.

Rehabilitation was a long and grueling process during which his wife, Julie, became his caretaker, medical advocate and chauffeur - and took over managing the couple's finances, something Bennett had always done.

In 2020, Bennett found another champion: Gemma, a two-year-old Rottweiler who he adopted from Rotts of Friends Animal Rescue in Woodland in California. Gemma already had obedience training, so Bennett trained her to be his service dog. She has been his constant companion ever since.

In addition to learning to walk again, managing life with impaired sight and learning to do everything one-handed, Bennett also needed to learn to speak clearly again. During speech therapy Bennett was shown 10 flash cards and he’d have to make up a story based on the cards. Then, an hour later, he'd have to repeat the story.

Bennett discovered he enjoyed making up and telling the flash card stories - and decided to tell his own tale, a narrative titled Struck Down: A Journey of Love, Loss and Strength, about his experience with having strokes. That book was never published, but the budding writer decided to keep writing.

"I thought to myself OK I rescued this dog and trained her as a service dog," recalled Bennett. "I thought it would be nice to have a book about her."

It was a "painstaking chore" to get a computer with multiple large monitors and all accessibility functions up and running, plus learn the software programs and how to type one handed — but he got it done.

In May, Bennett self-published From Lost to Loved: The Journey of Gemma the Service Dog. The book, for kids eight and older, weaves together fact and fiction in a heartwarming story of Gemma's journey from birth, to the last of the litter to be adopted, to getting lost and ending up in a shelter where she lives for months before being rescued by Bennett, who trains her to be his service dog.

Once Lost to Loved was written, two more books "poured out" of his imagination.

"Sometimes the story just starts coming out of me all at once," said Bennett. "I enjoy that immensely."

After Lost to Loved, Bennett wrote and self-published Lucas: Surfing with Dolphins. For ages 13 and older, it is an uplifting story about a young boy, named after the author's stillborn grandson, who dreams of surfing with dolphins after listening to his grandfather's stories about his adventures with a dolphin. In the story that spans generations and includes Gemma, Lucas learns to surf, rescues a dolphin and becomes involved in marine animal rescue.

Surfing with the Dolphins: Anna, scheduled for self-publication at the end of this month, is a sequel to Lucas in which Bennett adds a bit of "magical fantasy" to the story that follows Lucas and his humane and animal friends as they venture further into marine animal rescue and the wonders of the sea.

Bennett's wish is that through his "good, wholesome" stories, readers young and old will find as much joy, hope and inspiration in reading them as he has found in writing them.

"What writing them has done for me is to keep me engaged, to keep my brain working, and that’s big," said Bennett. "The more I write, the more clear I am in my head. I am able to discuss things more clearly with people, and my wife says I am more cognitive." – Chico Enterprise-Record/Tribune News Service