Kalispell resident learns to put health first following stroke

When Marit Bridger suffered a stroke, she wondered if she’d be confined to a nursing home for the rest of her life.  

But after several months of therapy, she slowly regained her ability to walk and speak. The scare in 2018 turned out to be what she needed to set her on a path to a healthier lifestyle.  

“It was a big wake-up call,” she said. “My diabetes had contributed to my stroke, and I wasn’t eating right. That was the beginning.” 

After years of hard work and support with the TOPS Club, a weight loss support group that focuses on lifestyle changes, Bridger last year hit her goal weight was crowned queen runner up for the state of Montana.  

TOPS recognizes members who lose more weight than anyone else in their state who reach their weight-loss goal. They are considered the king or queen of the state.  

"It was a lot,” Bridger said simply of her roughly 60-pound weight loss. While sitting at the kitchen table in her home near Foys Lake west of Kalispell, the 84-year-old says exercise has become more difficult now that she’s become unstable on her feet but that’s still no excuse not to be healthy.  

Growing up on a sheep ranch in Big Timber, Bridger and her family immigrated to the U.S. from Norway when she was 9. She and her husband Len later moved to California, where she worked for Quaker State completing data input for Ford.  

Together, Bridger and her husband would take vacations riding motorcycles, once traveling from the Mexico border to the end of the road in North America in the Northwest Territories. They have one daughter, and today Bridger brags about her two grandsons and three great-grandchildren.  

After retiring the couple moved back to Montana. Though Bridger had never been one to struggle with her weight that’s when she said the pounds began to slowly creep on.  

But a few years following the death of her husband of 53 years, who Bridger says was her best friend and the one who helped her keep her weight in check, she stepped on the scale realizing that she had gained considerably more.  

To help in losing the extra pounds she joined TOPS Club — Take Off Pounds Sensibly. It’s an organization she was familiar with having been a member of in the past.  

But what she knows now is that while she was enjoying the social aspect of the club, she wasn’t taking the goal of weight loss seriously even after being diagnosed with diabetes. 

The stroke changed all that.  

“I knew I had to be serious if I was going to enjoy life,” she said. “I had to change my habitats and my attitude. I was grateful to be alive.”  

Her daughter, who is a nurse, moved in with her following the stroke and was adamant about eating healthy. Eventually, she was able to return to TOPS where her fellow club members gave her rides to meetings. 

“I had lost 25 pounds and that was a good incentive to continue what I had been doing,” she said. “They were all so supportive. I have lots of good friends in TOPS.” 

The weekly TOPS meetings, she says, helped her stay on track through weigh-ins and education about health. The support from members is key, she points out, while noting that members reach out to one another between meetings to offer support.  

Last year after four years of hard work, she hit her goal weight where she has been at or below ever since.  

“My advice for people would be to be consistent,” she said. “Some people write down what they eat and plan out meals. You also need the support of other people.” 

Deputy Editor Heidi Desch may be reached at 758-4421 or hdesch@dailyinterlake.com.