Words by Andrew J. Williams

SPOKEN LIKE A TRUE FLORIDIAN

Finding Johnny Roberts’ home was an adventure. The sizable Colony Cove resort-style mobile home community in Manatee County’s Ellenton, Florida, is nestled on the bank of the Manatee River, which feeds into Greater Tampa Bay. 

As often happens to his visitors, Google Maps had trouble pinpointing his location.

I picked up the phone to ask for directions. Johnny answered with a raspy, labored “hello.” I explained that I was lost. Johnny said, “It happens,” and stayed on the phone until he could guide me through the Cove’s snaking streets to his front door.

A striking red Cadillac SUV is in the driveway where an aluminum carport once stood. On the front lawn, a screened-in porch is now just a concrete slab, where a television and television stand sit, exposed to the elements. This scene is the aftermath of two violent hurricanes: Helene and Milton.

It’s been a particularly harrowing hurricane season, arguably the worst on record. For months, powerful hurricanes feasted on Tampa Bay’s unseasonably warm waters, churning in the open water and finally producing monstrous storms that battered and pummeled Florida’s west coast, one after another, with destructive rain and wind and dangerous storm surges.

Johnny, a native of Troy, Michigan, is a seasoned Floridian. He’s spent the last 32 years in the Sunshine State. Enduring hurricanes comes with the territory. Traditionally, this reality brings a passing spell of mass hysteria and an underwhelming event from Mother Nature. “Dodged another bullet” is a typical response. 

Many residents, even those in evacuation zones, refuse to leave home every year — a practiced stubbornness.

“I've been here long enough that I thought, “yeah, another hurricane,” Johnny says. “Truthfully, I would have stayed here had everybody not yelled and screamed so much.”

He’s resilient, like many Floridians — a survivor. 

But this time felt different. Echoes of the widespread, lingering damage leveled on Tampa Bay are present at Johnny’s home, and the ramifications to the community and its simple way of life are unmistakable. 

COLONY COVE

For most of his professional career, Johnny was a hotel manager for a Holiday Inn hospitality chain franchise holder — he guesses that he passed through more than a dozen hotels — and an on-again, off-again employee of automotive giant General Motors for over 15 years. 

Eventually, facing a debilitating sequence of health-related issues, he retired from the workforce at 62 without a pension.

Johnny, now 74, had his first heart attack at 45. Nearly 30 years later, he struggles with his weight, suffers from congestive heart failure and has five stents for clogged arteries. The bruising tattooed on his forearms is a constant reminder of the blood thinners he requires to manage his high blood pressure.

He understands how fortunate he is to be alive. “At this old age, I’m still hanging in here,” Johnny says, revealing that his wife was not as lucky.

Johnny and his late wife relocated to Ellenton, a town of 3,100, to help soothe the lung disease that eventually claimed her life.

Before Ellenton, the couple lived 21 miles south in Sarasota, in what Johnny describes as a “good-sized home” with a pool and hot tub. They had what they needed and then some.

Then his wife’s health deteriorated. Her condition meant every breath she breathed could be deadly. 

“She couldn't go out in the yard with the pool there,” Johnny says. “She couldn't go near the hot tub. She couldn't be outside if I was cutting the grass. So, we moved here where somebody else cuts the grass, and if I want a pool, there’s five to pick from.” 

Colony Cove offers comfort, recreation and affordable luxury for retirees. Residents “enjoy access to six expansive clubhouses, six heated swimming pools, sports courts for pickleball, tennis and shuffleboard, plus an on-site marina that boasts both dry and wet boat slips,” according to the website. 

It was a modest slice of paradise they could enjoy together until his wife’s untimely passing, leaving Johnny to readjust to life alone.

ALONE MORE

Life after the death of Johnny’s wife has been more challenging in every way imaginable: financially, physically and socially. 

He’s primarily homebound and increasingly sedentary, except for frequent doctor visits. He rarely, if ever, drives and doesn’t have much contact with his neighbors. 

Eight years ago, after inserting his stents, he was assigned a social worker who assessed his needs and recommended he receive home-delivered meals from Meals on Wheels PLUS of Manatee County.

The fact that Johnny lived and managed his health alone was a key factor.

“It was because of my income dropping in half,” Johnny says, who lives on a monthly $1,300 Social Security check, which barely covers his $1,100 rent, $200 utilities, and $50 phone bill; he receives $25-$30 worth of food stamps, that only stretches so far.

Then, there are the physical constraints. “I can't stand without leaning for more than five or six minutes (Johnny’s limited mobility, as I witnessed during our conversations, makes standing to change his shirt arduous). Cooking is an all-day ordeal if I gotta do it myself.”

These days, Johnny must endure the tribulations of living alone with a failing body—with only his will to live and the kindness of others to keep him strong enough to keep going.

JUNK FOOD

Meals on Wheels PLUS of Manatee is a reliable constant for Johnny and the most nutritious meals he consumes each week. He receives a once-a-week delivery of milk and five frozen meals to supplement his nutritional needs.

Yet, old habits die hard.

Johnny admits he’s a glutton for junk food and always has been. He grew up eating McDonald’s, Burger King and White Castle and still indulges in what he shouldn’t. His vices. They are also the cheaper option.

“If it were up to me to supply meals, I would eat pizza seven days a week, 365 days a year,” Johnny jokes. “Pizza is something I can put in the oven and walk away from for a half-hour,” reiterating that standing for long periods isn’t possible. 

A cup of deviled egg potato salad accompanies his twelve medications each morning. It’s not the most nutritious, but “It’s better than nothing,” Johnny admits.

This reality makes the meals he receives from the local Meals on Wheels PLUS even more important. They balance his diet, which is critical given his compounding health issues. He especially loves the Salisbury steak, meatloaf, or anything with tomato sauce—hearty, tasty meals packed with nutrients to nourish his ailing body.

HURRICANE SEASON

Meals on Wheels PLUS of Manatee’s support is essential to his hurricane readiness plan. Alongside his regular frozen meals, he receives canned goods every month to store and use as emergency rations should the need arise.

Johnny's frozen meals were beneficial after he spent four days in the local shelter during Hurricane Milton, which made landfall at 8:30 p.m. EST on October 9, 2024, as a category three storm with sustained winds of 120 mph. He was grateful to come home to a fridge full of ready-to-eat meals. 

In the days before the storm, the local Meals on Wheels PLUS also conducted a safety check, calling to inquire if Johnny was going to a shelter and, if so, which one. In addition to his other medical needs, Johnny uses a CPAP machine to clear his airways while sleeping. When he evacuates, he goes to a special needs shelter, which provides power outlets for guests. 

Johnny recounts that he returned home from the shelter to see Milton’s vicious winds, which had ripped apart his carport and enclosed porch — his primary connection to the outside world — and scattered the remains somewhere in the neighborhood.

“That was a screened, vinyl, windowed enclosure. Even in the rain, I could be out there,” Johnny says. “It kept the mosquitos out and the environment out.”

Thankfully, Johnny’s home is reinforced; steel straps run four feet deep underneath his exterior siding, anchoring it down. This anchoring method enables the main structure to withstand 150 mph winds.

Unfortunately, Johnny is constantly lonely, despite a male friend who visits once or twice a week and a stepdaughter who regularly calls to check on him. 

Yet, being homebound still means he’s more isolated than not. Thankfully, the weekly visit from a Meals on Wheels PLUS of Manatee volunteer helps fill that void.

“I have enjoyed their service,” Johnny admits. “Most of the time, it's the same people delivering meals every week, so you get to know them.”

Meals on Wheels PLUS volunteers were among the first to visit him post-Hurricane Milton.

“The following week [after the storm], there was still a lot of stuff in the roads around here: tree limbs, parts of people's carports and porches,” Johnny says. “They made their way through.” 

It is a testament to the organization’s commitment to the homebound seniors, like Johnny, it serves; if there’s a will, there’s a way to meet those needs, even in the harshest conditions.  

Thanks to Meals on Wheels PLUS of Manatee and conversations like ours, Johnny knows he’s never alone as his community recovers.