“If ever God got tired of hearing a name, he got tired of hearing mine,” laughs Ken Orrick.

Ken is referring, of course, to the many prayers sent up recently on his behalf. On February 21, 2007, Ken awakened at about 4:00 a.m. with numbness in his left arm. It was the sort of feeling he got when he’d slept on his side for too long. But Ken quickly realized that, although he’d been sleeping on his left side, it was his right side that was numb.

Startled, he tried calling out to family members in the darkness. Hearing his own voice, the voice that has enabled him to make his living in bluegrass music, Ken knew something was terribly wrong.

Stumbling to the kitchen, with his entire right side dragging limply, Ken knocked over a table. Luckily, his Riverside, CA, residence was just a few blocks away from a hospital. Ken’s family reacted quickly, and as he recalls, “There was an IV in my arm twelve minutes from the time I woke up!”

Read the Full Article in the print issue of Bluegrass Now, or call for a back issue