When his father died in February 2025, Eddie’s life was upended. For a couple of years, he’d been attending activities in the Projects Drive Group at Easterseals Northeast Indiana, a program where staff and other participants became part of his weekly routine. He naturally turned to Easterseals employees for help.
Sandy Miller, who manages staff in PDG, remembers getting a text early one morning in February 2025. Eddie had found his father that morning, and he texted Miller to let her know. Eddie’s mother had died about four years earlier. He is an only child, and he had been homeschooled before he started going to PDG. Many in his situation could be left all on their own.
Instead, Eddie found a circle of people beyond his family who helped him, beginning with several staff members in PDG.
“When Dad passed away, staff all started to help,” Miller said. Easterseals staff set to work getting him more waiver hours to reflect his greater need without his father.
In the meantime, staff members helped directly, often on their own time. All five of the staff members Miller supervised at the time went to the funeral for Eddie’s father. They took him grocery shopping. They checked in on him after working hours. They took him out for ice cream.
They weren’t alone in their efforts to help Eddie, now 23 years old, after his father died. Miller said that Eddie’s case manager and a behavioral consultant worked smoothly with Easterseals staff to help Eddie adapt to his new life.
And Eddie was blessed with an exceptional “natural support:” a neighbor, Zach Owens, who had worked with Eddie’s father several years ago at D&W Fine Pack, which makes food packaging.
Staying alone in the family home at night was too much for Eddie. Owens had remained friends with the family even as he moved into other jobs, and he understood the challenge Eddie faced.
“He doesn’t want to be alone,” Owens said of Eddie. Owens was in that spot just a few years ago.
“Right after my grandma died, I was going through a hard time and didn’t feel like I had anybody,” Owens said. “I lived with my grandma for 20 years, and to be alone after that, not having anybody in the house, was sad.”
So Owens kept his apartment nearby, but started coming to Eddie’s home every night after work. Owens has helped Eddie learn how to clean house and cook for himself.
“For the longest time, I was cleaning and cooking. Laundry, he’s fine with. … I saw him eating all these microwave dinners, and that’s not good all the time. It was microwave dinners and nuggets,” Owens said.
“It’s kind of gross, by the way,” Eddie said. “My body feels better after all that.”
Now Eddie cooks a wide range of meals, always enough for four. He saves a plate for Zach, and turns the rest into lunches to have at PDG.
In a recent week, Eddie said, meals he’s made have included “pork chops, chicken, rice, broccoli, corn, green beans, Brussels sprouts. I made pasta with bow ties, spinach and sausage. I made lasagna and pepperoni pizza casserole.”
The support has continued at Easterseals, too. Some of the people who helped him last year have moved on to other jobs; many of them still keep in touch with him, checking in and encouraging.
A particularly helpful woman who is still at PDG sees him most days. On a recent morning, staff member Felicia Mihm sat down with Eddie to play Trash, a card game, and to tell a bit about how far Eddie has come.
For Mihm, that extra support comes naturally.
“Eddie just has a really good heart. He’s just easy to click with,” she said. “He is just a really sweet soul.”
She was one of the staff members who took him to get haircuts – an unusually sensitive errand for him.
“My dad used to take me to get the haircut,” he said.
“I feel like emotionally, too, I’ve helped him grow since his dad’s passing,” she said. “We’ve talked a lot about the afterlife and what that means. And everybody has his time, you know?”
Most important, Eddie is moving ahead and embracing new goals, confident that he won’t chase new goals alone.
“I would like to drive one day,” he says. “Sandy (Miller) and I will talk about this Voc Rehab tutor and driving program.”