Dial A Ride came through in crisis

Published 11:58 am Tuesday, October 27, 2009

To the editor:

I am compelled to write you about my heroes at Dial A Ride. I just recently became disabled and live most of my life in a wheelchair. And all the feelings of loss of independence, and being in charge of my own life, have been the most difficult to deal with.

But friends have never been more important or loved by me until now. I have a power chair, which needs charging every day when I go to bed. Well, I forgot to charge my chair one night and when I looked at the meter, I thought I had enough power to go downtown to do my business. But I did not. And to my complete horror and panic, I also noticed it was closing time at Dial A Ride.

But in my fear of having to maybe spend the night downtown alone in a wheelchair that will not move – you see, I had only one red flashing light left and that spelled doom to me – I called Dial A Ride, hoping they were still taking calls, and to my surprise, they answered my phone. I explained my situation and they told me not to worry. A driver would pull a bus out of the garage and come to get me. Their advice to me was “Don’t move – we are on our way.” And when I saw the driver, Raymond, I almost burst into tears.

Needless to say, he got me home in time for me to power up my chair before it lost its charge. We don’t always think about how valued a service is until we find ourselves in the middle of a crisis an then they turn into heroes in the blind of an eye.

God bless my friends at Dial A Ride.

Brian Patrick
Niles