Act of total kindness
Okay all...short back story on the life of ME.
Became a cop, was recruited to DEA...spent a total of 12 years wearing a badge. 10 years ago while working interdiction missions in Panama, the chopper aboard which I was riding took ground fire (they call that having a training accident) and crashed. Both legs were shattered, thereby ending my LE career.
Fast forward 6 years. I am doing "okay" physically. Everything works for the most part. Other than general pain in the legs, nothing really stops me, I ride my Harley, hunt, fish, shoot, live a pretty good life. I own 3 taxi cabs under the YELLOW CAB banner, business is good, making good money. I have a wife, a new baby girl...actually living fat, and happy.
Then in Nv 2004, I get Guillian Barre Syndrome...it strikes MAYBE 1 in 100,000 people a year, and ravages one's peripheral nervous system. It completely paralyzed me. No walking, no control of my hands, nada. Also with 115,000 in medical bills, and me no longer able to work...we were financially devastaed for a couple of years. Fortuneately, it can and was sucessfully treated, and now I can walk again (albeit for only a minute or two). Mainly, I walk around my home, or in familiar surroundings, but if I go anywhere....my wheelchair goes with me.
If I am at one of the big box stores, or a grocery store, I need one of their motorcarts to shop, because it is a ***** to try to operate a manual wheelchair AND a shopping cart. I am still too much of a prideful ******* to consider asking some teenage bagger to help me shop. If they don't have one, or if, like WalMart, they are not charged...I wait in the Tahoe while the wife shops.
Anyway...I have been fighting with my insurance company to purchase me a power scooter.
Friday, my neighbor Alan and his wife Pam (both LDS in their late sixties) GIVE me with no strings attached a $6,000 heavy duty PRIDE MOBILITY scooter with 4 wheels, extended range everything, and ultra heavy duty suspension. It is actually the model that is used for rough terrain and hiking trails etc...
They just GAVE it to me. Would take no offer of money, or anything. Pam simply said she had it in storage, and never used it, so she saw how much trouble I had with my wheelchair sometimes, and just figured I could use it more than she.
People.... this ******* blew my mind.
All I need to do is order a $300.00 set of batteries when I come up with the extra money (daughter's birthday busted me this month), and I am off and rolling.
This is giving me back a part of my life I have been missing for almost 4 years.
I know this is probably not the place to share this...but ****...wow.