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a week ago today

One week ago today we headed out for Nashville, TN to see the Moffitt clan (Bobby's youngest sister and her family) for a day or two before heading on to be with my family. En route Bobby's chair refused to be budged from its lock-down position. At all. If you've ever lived with a disability and needed assistance, you know that holidays are NOT the time to have an equipment malfunction. No one is open, and if they are, you're almost always going be charge holiday time when it comes to the labor portion of the repair bill. Mechanics do have families, too, you know.  Thankfully for us, they happen to be in my family.
We arrived in TN to find a friend of Susan's there, and Matt and David (my bro-in-law), began dismantling the back of Bobby's chair in order to leverage the chair into an upward position so we could ease it out of the lock. It took a while, but they were not only successful in getting him inside and settled, but also in strapping the wheelchair back together enough so Bobby could drive the chair in and out of entrances without getting stuck. They also moved my chair into the driver's position, allowing me to drive the four hours the next day to AL.  When my brother and brother-in-law removed the casing to see if it was weldable, this was what they found:
See the missing chunks in the long pieces on top...so not supposed to be there. Turns out I was right...Bobby's bolt underneath was not loose at all. But he was right as well...due to the breaks and cracks (which aren't seen in this photo) the entired battery carriage underneath (which is what the bolt is connected to) was lowered a good inch and a half, posing the problem. On my birthday (the 23rd), they managed to secure the chair back in place with heavy duty strapping with locks, and on their off day, Christmas Eve, the spent several hours repairing the broken pieces enough that the chair could once again be used in the driver's position and we can get back to the wheelchair repair place this next week and found out what our options are.

I'm so thankful for Matt, David, Jamie and Andy for their tireless efforts and sacrificial spirit in helping us get through one of our many hurdles this holiday season. I honestly don't know what we'd do without family.
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