GRAND FORKS — After more than a year in the hospital, a Grand Forks man is finally closer to home.

Longtime UND biologist Richard Bares thought he might just have the common cold, but it spiraled into something that nearly took his life.

As much as this is a story about Bares beating the odds and surviving. It is also a love story that is hard to match. He and his wife, Peggy, have spent over a year on one incredible roller coaster ride.

"I haven't been home for 16 months," Peggy said of her husband's long journey back.

It started in June 2024.

"I started feeling like I had a cold," Richard said.

That cold and flu-like feeling soon led to Richard being unable to walk.

"It hit me like a 'sock' to the face," he said.

It took days in the hospital before the scary diagnosis came: Guill

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