Lou Morin of Freeport will have real reason to celebrate when he marks his 50th birthday on Oct. 25.

A year-and-a-half removed from a severe stroke that left him partially paralyzed and with limited body movement on his right side, as well as unemployed, Morin is a partner in a new landscaping company, an occupation far removed from his former jobs.

And on his way to recovery, he has been recognized for his efforts by New England Rehabilitation Hospital in Portland, where he underwent rehab in the spring of 2014.

On Wednesday, Sept. 23, in the hospital’s cafeteria, Morin will receive the New England Rehabilitation Hospital Award for Overcoming Barriers and Exceeding Expectations.

“I prefer ‘Badass Rehab Patient of the Year’ award,” Morin joked from his home on Durham Road last week. “I think it’s more for the patients who remain in the hospital, basically.”

Marcia Hyde, one of Morin’s therapists at New England Rehabilitation Hospital, nominated Morin for the award and will be making the presentation Wednesday. Hyde spared no superlatives when describing Morin’s recovery during his stay at the hospital in the spring of 2014. He arrived there in early April, following a month at Maine Medical Center immediately following the stroke, which he suffered on March 12.

“He exceeded expectations a million fold,” Hyde said. “He came in extremely ill. He was dependent for mobility. He couldn’t get in and out of bed, in and out of a wheelchair and he was unable to walk. Everything he had to do he was dependent. He was critically ill.”

Hyde said that Morin’s blood pressure spiked twice during therapy, causing him to lose consciousness. Emergency personnel were alerted on the hospital loudspeaker.

“There wasn’t much progress in three weeks,” she said. “The insurance company was talking about a nursing home. I could not get him up on his feet because his muscles inadvertently were fighting me, and fighting him. Then he had a breakthrough moment. He had an ‘ah-hah’ moment on a weekend when I wasn’t there, when students were working with him. He stood up on his own with no support. After another week, he took decent steps with a walker. Then he just took off from there and left with a cane, which is phenomenal progress.”

Morin is still slightly limited with right arm and leg movement, but drives a car again, mows his lawn and lives on his own.

He was the executive director of the Franco Center in Lewiston when he suffered his stroke at home. Following the therapy, Morin had a brace on his right ankle and a walking cane. He had lost his job. But the stroke left Morin with a determination to avoid the lifestyle that made him overweight and with high blood pressure, a lifestyle that led to the stroke.

Months and months of rehab paid off incrementally. Morin got his driver’s license back last April, although the state told him he could no longer drive a standard shift. So he sold his Volkswagen Jetta and bought a Subaru, which is specially equipped with a left-footed gas pedal. He went through outpatient therapy and was able to ditch the brace and cane.

“I’m pretty self-sufficient,” Morin said.

All the time Morin was working to strengthen his body, his mind was occupied with what he could do to earn a living. A couple of months ago, Morin called his old University of Maine roommate from 1988, Kevin Lacroix, who has been working for landscaping companies all these years. Not long into the conversation, Morin learned that he and his old buddy shared a similar idea.

“I asked him if there was room in the landscaping business for a guy like me,” Morin said. “Kevin said he was thinking about starting his own company. He does a lot of hardscaping – building walkways and the like – and he doesn’t want to do mowing or trimming. I said, ‘Well, I can do the mowing and trimming.’ He also didn’t want to do the marketing and the business end, which suits me just fine.”

Their new company, Razor’s Edge Landscaping of Freeport, has been in business for two weeks, and lists When Pigs Fly, a bakery on Main Street in Freeport, as its first client. Lacroix, who lives in Portland, will be spending much of his time in the Freeport area nowadays. The new business partners plan to be on the job, as is the case with most landscaping businesses, until the snow flies. Raking and removing leaves is in their job description.

“He just handed me the business end,” said Morin, “so I will design advertisements and I’ve secured a domain for our website, razorsedgelandscaping.com.”

None of this came easy for Morin, but he had his mind set.

“I was going to New England Rehab on a weekly basis as soon as I could drive again,” he said. “They worked me pretty hard. It’s an aggressive physical therapy hospital. It’s four hours a day of physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy. I just stopped going because insurance doesn’t pay for therapy indefinitely. They approve block sessions. Toward the end I wasn’t getting much out of it anyway.”

Because of his disability, for which Morin collects Social Security, he pays just $92 a month for health insurance with Maine Community Health Options, the state’s so-called Obamacare apparatus.

“The insurance company has been nothing short of wonderful,” he said.

While Morin excelled with his therapy, he worried about his career.

“At first I underestimated the difficulty in finding work for someone labeled with a disability,” said Morin, who had once worked in radio at WBLM. “I can’t lift heavy weights, or fully stretch, or type quickly, or talk quickly – so no radio. Over the summer, I thought about my station in life. I had done a few press releases. I thought about a (public relations) agency. But I didn’t want a sedentary job again. I wanted something that was a little bit more active. I enjoy yard work.”

Morin, who grew up in Skowhegan, said he could have sold his Freeport home, moved north, purchased a much cheaper home there and lived on his Social Security. He didn’t dwell on that notion.

“I wanted to stay down here,” he said, “so that became the driving factor in my decision. I can mow a lawn as good as the next guy.”

Freeport’s Lou Morin, who suffered a massive stroke in March 2014, has started Razor’s Edge Landscaping with his former college roommate. Morin has won the New England Rehabilitation Hospital Award for Overcoming Barriers and Exceeding Expectations.Courtesy photo