Driving Again

Let me tell you about Debbie learning to drive, getting her license and buying a customized van that allows her to drive with her hands. She had gotten so fed up with trying to catch city buses where only perhaps one in five where wheelchair lift equipped, and of those, the driver often claimed the lift wasn't working. I always thought that they just didn't feel like bothering with the assisting her and attaching the safety straps to her chair. In fact, one did once leave the straps off, saying they weren't on the bus. Sure enough, upon turning a corner, Deb's chair tip and she crashed to the floor of the bus. Shaken and bruised, she was eventually OK, and it wound up costing the transit system for physical therapy and damages; they eventually wound up paying for a big chunk of her van.
There were alternatives. The community responsive transit, could be scheduled, but good luck trying to get to an appointment on time with them, or getting back home in time for dinner after a 1:00 doctor's appointment. Private services were more prompt, but at $80 or more for a round trip, it was prohibitive.
So Deb decided she had to drive again. First she had to get an assessment as to whether she could control even a customized vehicle. Then she had to find a vehicle that was in suitable condition to customize. If you thought a used car dealer might try to take advantage of a single female looking to buy a van, imagine when they thought they had a single female in a wheelchair buying a van. Of course Deb was too stubborn to wait until it was convenient for me to go with her to shop for her van (this was before we were married). It was funny to see how a van that was "a great deal" at $16,000 when Deb was by herself, dropped like a rock to $15 then to $11 thousand when I went with her to look at it, and I don't even consider myself a hardened negotiator.
That first van was huge. It was a customized Dodge Ram that was probably once someones pride and joy. Pink and grey on the outside, it had a TV/VCR combo (for a 1991 model, that was big time customizing, not the factory DVD jobs of today), a CB radio and tinted windows. We had to take it about 2 hours away to get it customized. They tricked it out with hand controls and a huge lift that could probably crush a compact car if you let unfold on top of it. Now Deb was ready to ride in style! She has had 2 since then, but somehow, that first van that gave her back her freedom (and for us, more places to go together) will always be special.