Chair Lifts
When my father came to live with us last winter, I knew we would have to make a lot of changes. Dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease last year and we knew he couldn’t stay in the old house. We also knew we didn’t want to put him in a home. Dad has always been there for us and we’d never turn him over to strangers to live out his remaining years. But still we had a lot of concerns. Our home is simply not equipped to deal to suit dad’s needs. To begin with, he has serious mobility issues. He usually walks with an old hickory cane and has a lot of trouble making it up the stairs. That’s why we decided to take a look at some chair lifts.
Chair lifts are motorized devices that can be installed in your home to help elderly and disabled people make it up and down the stairs. They are comfortable and easy to operate. Most chair lifts come with seat belts and swivel chairs that allow the operator to position the chair any way they’d like. They also come in either electric or battery operated models.
After thoughtful consideration, we decided to purchase a battery-powered chair lift because it doesn’t have the dangerous trailing cable that the electric models have; and with two kids and three dogs, it would only be a matter of time before someone tripped over the cable and took a terrible tumble. We also liked the chair lifts that fold up and allow for more space on the staircase.
Though my husband offered to install the chair lift himself, I insisted that we have a professional installation technician from the store come out to the house and put it in. My husband means well, but honestly the man is all thumbs when it comes to anything mechanical. He can barely check the oil in his car.
The next day the technician from the store arrived at our house and installed our new chair lift in under two hours. He’d said he had installed hundreds of chair lifts over the years and they were one of the most reliable household appliances he had every worked. Dad soon agreed. He uses his new chair lift every day and has no trouble operating it. I can’t tell you the difference chair lifts have made in our lives. We can now enjoy our time together without having to worry about dad hurting himself on the stairs.
