Hi Kossacks,
I want to introduce you to my friend, Anne Cooper and ask you to help her out.
I met her via my girlfriend, Mary Ann. Mary Ann is disabled and supplements her disability by selling handmade jewelry from minerals, polished stones and semi-precious gems at local Farmers Markets in the Dallas area. Anyway, before I met Mary Ann, she was shopping at a local rock store, the Rock Barrel. While browsing she met Anne, a very friendly, extremely depressed woman in a wheelchair, short a good part of a right leg. This was Anne.
Anne was also living on disability and also a skilled creator of jewelry from the same materials. In fact, she used to own her own jewelry store. But she was cripplingly depressed. An extrovert who thrived on social interaction, she was a prisoner in her apartment unless someone was willing to help her fold her wheelchair and put in into her car and someone else was willing to reverse the process at the destination. Or they were willing to do the process in their car and drive her.
Mary Ann invited Ann to share her booth selling jewelry at the local farmers market and became a conduit to freedom for Anne. Able to interact with others and supplement her income with her creative endeavors, Anne blossomed into the gregarious, friendly, funny, irreverent woman who I met when I started dating Mary Ann.
Anne quickly learned that I was a hobbyist blacksmith and told me she had been interested in blacksmithing for years and years. I looked at her missing leg and wheelchair said, “Hey, no promises because we have to put safety first and I’m not sure how we will work this all out but come over to my workshop and we’ll see if you can start hitting hot metal.”
You know that expression when a child first meets a new kitten or puppy? Anne was over the moon. Later she told me she had asked many other metalworkers and smiths to teach her and nobody before me had taken her seriously. So, for about a year, Anne comes to my house on Wednesday evening and hammers out some stuff. My amazing and kind blacksmithing instructor. Kelly Kring, forged Anne an anvil appropriate for her to use and of a size that she can move.
But one thing has not changed: Anne is still a prisoner. If Mary Ann, I or another friend do not give her a ride, she is stuck in her apartment, her perfectly fine car gathering dust outside.
Here is her story:
Meet Anne Cooper; jewelry artist, aspiring blacksmith and amputee.
She needs a new wheelchair and not some heavy, unwieldy contraption built to confine an invalid. Anne needs a chariot she can use to whip through the Farmer's Markets at which she sells her jewelry. Something maneuverable which will allow her to approach forge and anvil with SAFETY and EASE as she holds hot iron with tongs in one hand and hammer in the other. A chair she can disassemble and put into her Honda Fit by herself so she does not have to wait on others for rides (can you imagine owning your own car and not being to use it?).
Read on to learn about this amazing lady.
Anne was born in 1949 with a partial right hip and a leg that was literally facing the wrong way. As a child she used a leather cuff that held her leg, and it was framed first with steel and later with aluminum prosthetics to reach the floor. She was in constant pain but did not let that slow her down from doing things like making the decision to amputate from just above the right knee in an effort to end the pain before going to college (BA in Psychology from Austin College - go Anne!).
From there forward she used a 14lb wood prosthetic to walk. This was pre-Vietnam and the amazing advances in prosthetics had yet to take place - no shock absorption and very crude in make. In order to walk she had to lift her entire right side and each night she ached when she took it off.
Nonetheless, she persisted - following her hobby of jewelry making from minerals, decorative stones and semi-precious jewels and turning it into a career. Anne also took up adopting kitties in need like Jasper who she rescued by jumping out of a car in traffic to save. She's owned jewelry stores, done silversmithing and pursued her passions.
But now that she's retired, damage to her shoulders from years of anti-ergonomic prosthetics and crutches confine her to a wheelchair. And medicaid does not pay for fancy chairs. She has a 34 lb. chair that was designed by someone who CLEARLY does not use a wheelchair. The armrests stick out over the wheels and strain hands, arms, and shoulders. Each side has pieces that stick out and catch her pants and pull them down.
Salvation for Anne seemed to be at hand when I (Andy) saw a woman in a wheel chair zip out of 7-11 to her car, hop in, pull each wheel off her chair, fold it up and fit it all in her car. I leapt out of my car and chased her down - somewhat to her alarm - and got the name of the company who made the chair: Per4Max in Grand Prairie.
Anne and I took a field trip and they quoted her a chair HALF THE WEIGHT OF HER CURRENT CHAIR with removable wheels, an easy to disassemble back and which folded. It has breaks and can be done in Anne's favorite color - PURPLE (Anne wants to name it the Grape Escape).
Anne says: "I think that custom wheelchair would set me free again. I used to be able to go anywhere and do anything on my own schedule. Now, I have to wait until someone who can lift my chair wants to go somewhere. I could go to the Farmers Markets on my own. Or go to the library whenever I wanted. I could go out and have a simple cup of coffee. I could go donate time volunteering somewhere. I pray to God every day please help me to get a wheelchair that I can take apart and have my dignity restored."
We tried the Medicaid route. For months Anne has chased doctors, psychologists, Durable Medical Equipment Suppliers, insurers. We've all helped file papers and deliver them urgently to suppliers and physicians - to no avail. They'll buy her a new chair just as user unfriendly as her current one, no problem. But not a custom chair that will actually help her.
So, I want to buy Anne a new chariot. This amazing lady is 68 years young and she has a lot of things to do, people to see, kitties to pet and iron to pound.
The chair is $3,900. I want Anne to have $5,000 so she can deal with any unforeseen contingencies which may arise as a result of a new chair.
Any assistance is appreciated.
I want to point out — this is not a simple donation proposition. Anne, Mary Ann and I are offering handmade jewelry, handforged items — crafted individually — as rewards for supporting this cause.
Additionally, I do not consider this something that benefits only Anne. This lady has a lot to contribute. She wants to volunteer. She can teach jewelry making. Giving her mobility gives her the ability to contribute to others.