Handicap Lifts
When I returned home from the hospital, I was greeted by a cheering, crying crowd of friends and relatives. I tried to smile and hold it in, but when I saw my wife and little girl, I broke down in tears. It had been over a year since I had seen my daughter in the flesh, and I couldn’t contain myself. Even though soldiers are supposed to be tough, fathers and husbands can afford to shed a few tears every now and then. I didn’t know exactly what to expect or how she would react to my new mode of transport. Last fall I was injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq and since then I have been paralyzed from the waist down. My daughter, Sarah, just smiled and said “Daddy.”
It has been several months since then and I still worry about my family. I worry about how they are going to take car of me. To begin with, I had no idea how they were going to transport me into our van. That’s when my wife looked into handicap lifts. Handicap lifts are devices that help disabled people get from their wheelchairs into their vehicles. It looks a bit like your own private swing that is attached to a luggage rack. You simply take a seat in your lift and then you can easily be moved to your vehicle. All handicap lifts have wheels on the bottom, so it is easy to move someone on the driveway right up to the car seat. Handicap lifts also have hand cranks that allow you to lift someone as high as you need to easily transfer them into the vehicle. Once the person is safely in the car, most handicap lifts will fold up for easy storage in the trunk or backseat. They do not even need to be disassembled.
Although it hasn’t been easy for me or my family to adjust to my new condition, handicap lifts have made for a smoother transition. At least we don’t have to worry about how to get daddy into and out of the family minivan. And mommy doesn’t have to start weight liftting or eating raw eggs so she can lift me into my seat. The handicap lift is really making our lives easier, we are really grateful to have one now.
