FOTD XX - Handi Van II

Coming out of the airport I got a call that so and so needed two handicap vans at this address. I volunteered for one and was told to report back if they needed a second. I meet them outside their apartment complex and these two (husband and wife) look to be the oldest people I've ever seen. The wife is crawling slowly in a scooter and her husband is holding on to the back and shuffling along.

I load em up and they tell me they are headed to the bank. This is only the second time that they've ever taken a taxi. Long story short, she is 80 he is 79, they were married 59 years ago, no children, he had a stroke 9 years ago, and she fell down 3 years ago and since then they've both had scooters. They usually go down the street to Walgreen's for grocery shopping where they can buy frozen dinners and canned food. They have not been to a grocery store or eaten fresh vegetables or fruits in the 3 years since she's been hurt. So I offer to take them to the grocery store at first they decline but after they come out of the bank they changed their mind and we head to the store. I offer to go in there with them if they want to get tons of crap but she declines. We go to Vons, I wait about 20 minutes, they come out and they bought 2 frozen mexcian dinners (Walgreen's doesn't carry those), 3 tomatoes, 3 apples and 4 bananas. Life is good.

Towards the end of the day I get another call for a handicap van. It's somewhat far away and with the traffic so it takes me a little to get there. I arrive at this dentist office and the staff is waiting for me to pick my passenger up so they can close. This lady is missing a right leg, a right forearm and hand, her right eye (she tells me later) and is or has been severely burnt across all of her right side of her body and most of her left side. Long story short, she wants to go home get her husband go to the bank (he got $2400 in back unemployment benefits direct deposited) then go to Red Lobster. Along the way to pick him up (she leaves her scooter at home and they both change) she says her husband is mildly retarded, she recounts how she met him at a job they both had and how he proposed to her in front of everyone in the office.

We pick him up and he does seem slow but otherwise normal, we go to the bank and it's closed (after 5pm) along the way she decides that they are no longer going to Red Lobster that they have to go to Wednesday bible study and he is going to have to give Tithe. He's goes to the ATM and she mentions that he's probably trying to take out the entire amount so I walk up there and he is in fact trying to take out the entire $2400 so I help him out and he takes out $500. He gets back in and she starts to quote verse and passages to him (he is reluctant to Tithe) she is a very powerful preacher and it's just a crazy scene. The church is clear on the other side of town so in the end it's a $77 ride and I end up dropping them off at the Panda Express across their church.

She told me along the way that 20 years ago she was in a terrible car accident and car fire. Her husband left her (and her young child) 5 weeks after the accident. What a tough life but she's made the best of it.