Ever since an accidental gunshot wound on January 23rd of 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 lifting her very heavy power-chair. She’d rather be able to depend on herself for transportation.
After learning how to drive at Drake hospital in March of 04, 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 break. “It is a mix of a joint stick and a bicycle handle, where if you pushed it forward the car would stop, and back to accelerate. Since you 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 four dollars 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 to school or her home in Madisville, 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 where ever 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 where ever I please.”
Through all that, she still can not drive herself because their van is too old to be modified; in fact they can not be over three years old. 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.
Saturday, July 12, 2025