TENANTS HARBOR — Bright sunny smiles accompanied the morning sun in Tenants Harbor as family and friends gathered to create a birthday greetings video to the most severely injured person involved in an incident in Port Clyde where an errant golf cart struck a party of three 12 days ago

Frank Cahalan is making strides in his recovery since Aug. 29, 2024. However, it has still been a long road for him and his family. So, his sister Helen and his daughter Regan Myers organized a special group picture and video for him to look at while he lays in his hospital bed.

Through their lenses, he will see on his 76th birthday handmade signs accentuated with color, and merry shouts of “we love you” and “see you soon.” Behind them, inside the summer door to the house, Cahalan’s cat, Bootsie, took in the scene. The cat greatly misses Cahalan and his wife, according to Myers.

Cahalan suffered multiple breaks in his back from the impact and has been flat on that back ever since. The television isn’t within viewing range, leaving him with little to look at but the walls, the ceiling, and the close friends and relatives who come to visit him at Maine Medical Center each day.

“It’s been a long back and forth of surgery and care and pain,” said Myers. “It’s been a long ordeal, and everyone was sort of deflating with energy.”

A morale boost was needed, for everyone, leading to the video idea.

His wife, Tina, and another woman, Chris Moses, were also injured in the incident. Both are out of the hospital. Tina is now in Bath receiving skilled nursing rehab while Moses was at today’s birthday greeting, proving her own internal steel and resilience despite continuing to deal with wound care.

Frank is a little slower behind in recovery, complicated by internal injuries. His older age (all three injured were between 76 and 80 years old) means a slower mending process, and he needs to grow strong again and mend those internal injuries so that surgeons can turn him over and begin the back surgery.

It’s a frustration to the man who, in 53 years of marriage, has never spent a birthday away from his wife. Yet, good news has come, on this, his birthday. He has grown strong enough again. Tomorrow, that surgery will occur.

The family is ecstatic.

This community of friends, the locals, and also the greater community, have provided food and support. Being the wife of a lobsterman, Myers said the lobster industry family has texted her every day inquiring into her own well-being as she makes round trips to Portland every 24 hours.

“I’ve always loved this community,” said Myers. “But, to be on the receiving end, what I’ve seen them do for others, is really powerful.”

Myers also named St. George Ambulance and fire squad. Asst. Chief Leavitt. Everybody.

“It’s just been amazing,” she said.

As they left the birthday greeting, friends stopped in front of Myers and thanked her for the invite.

“This was really special,” they said.

Reach Sarah Thompson at news@penbaypilot.com