JTV Pearl Maven Mark Brown Is Recovering From A Stroke

We’re not tying to be flip, but this news was almost as shocking as Princess Kate revealing she has cancer: JTV pearl guy Mark Brown had a stroke and is recovering.

Brown, the home shopping network’s pearl jewelry vendor, has not been on the air for awhile, which had us wondering what was up. We enjoy him. We always enjoy vendors who are so obviously passionate about their jewelry.

Then today on Facebook we saw that Brown posted a video explaining what had happened. You should watch it, but in a nutshell he said he suffered a stroke about a month again, and had to re-learn basic tasks like speaking and walking.

Brown says he’ll be back on-air.

“I’m not going to quit what I’m doing,” he said. “I love bringing our pearls to you. It’s not just a job. It’s a huge portion of my life that I refuse to give up.”

This hits close to home for us. Our brother-in-law recently suffered a mild stroke. He went to the ER twice complaining of numbness in his left arm. His blood pressure was soaring. Doctors finally determined it was a mild stroke and put him on blood thinners and blood-pressure medication.

But we had a much more horrific experience years ago with our mom. Just a few months after our dad passed away, our mom was hospitalized for dehydration. It was right before Easter, like this time of year.

We gave our mom an Easter card to fill our for our niece, and it was taking her forever. We said, “Come on Mama,” and she didn’t respond at all. We stood right in front of her face, and she looked right through us. It was as if she didn’t see us or hear us.

We looked at the card, and in the middle of a sentence her writing had become gibberish.

We felt like two cents. The reason she was taking so long with the card was that she was having a stroke right in front of us.

We can’t recall how many hours it took for her to finally respond and acknowledge us that day. But she could not speak correctly. It was aphasia, just like Bruce Willis has, where the person is trying to talk but the wrong words come out, they can’t formulate language.

Our mom went to a rehab center, where she would answer with nonsense — like saying “chicken” or “lettuce” — when you asked how she was. You’d ask her to pile blocks on top of the other, and she couldn’t do it.

What a horrible time for our family. We had just lost our dad and now didn’t know if our mother would ever be OK.

We can’t remember how long it took — which seems very strange now, that we can’t recalled — but Mama regained her faculties, was able to talk and function. Thank God!

Brown called JTV viewers his extended family. We feel the same about him. He has obviously made a lot of progress, as we can see from his video. Here’s praying and wishing him the best for the rest of his journey.

Tags: JTV, Mark Brown's stroke, pearls