Ever since an accidental gunshot wound on January 23, 1971, Shirley M. Sewell has been paraplegic. At age eleven, Ms. Shirley was at her father’s girlfriend’s house when a friend of the family’s gun went off while they were playing with it. The bullet chipped her spinal cord and instantly paralyzed her. But even though she has been in a wheelchair since age eleven, nothing has stopped this strong and upbeat wife and mother from enjoying her life until now.Despite her strong attitude, Ms. Shirley needs a van with a lift so she can drive herself from her power-chair, because her devout husband is getting older, and he is having trouble lifting her very heavy power-chair. She would rather be able to depend on herself for transportation.
After learning how to drive at Drake Hospital in March 2004, she proudly got her license. The now nonexistent program had two fully equipped cars and one van, where the driving teacher could take over at any time in the passenger’s seat. With hand controls, she could steer, accelerate the gas, and brake. “It is a mix of a joy stick and a bicycle handle, where if you pushed it forward the car would stop, and back to accelerate. Since I could only practice there, we rented a car to practice on, and I even drove myself to an event when my husband couldn’t take me. I was so thrilled.”
Her only other option, Access metro at $4 a day, is both expensive and inconvenient. In fact she has to ride on the bus for up to two hours before she even gets dropped off at school or her home in Madisonville, time she could spend either to study or sleep.
Ms. Shirley’s comments towards the company were rightfully bitter: “They tell you it’s a shared ride, and they all know that we have no other choice, so you have to ride wherever they choose. Another problem is that they only go on 275, so if I wanted to work in Mason, they couldn’t take me. The van would give me the freedom to go wherever I please.”
Through all that, she still can not drive herself because their van is too old to be modified. If you help her get the van she needs, the Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation will pay for the modifications. So far she has only saved up $1,500 with the help of some parties and raffles she organized.
With a sweet earnest smile she concluded, “Just please help me be independent.