Stars shine brightest in the dark

I have no picture for this story. use your imagination!!!

On Monday my Cyrus and I had a little adventure. I take physiotherapy at a clinic on the second floor of a building in Bells Corners.

It was a cloudy day and looked like rain as I arrived with Cyrus by Para Transpo. I realized I was half an hour early so I decided to take my beauty for a walk. As I walked down the road I had a sudden urge that I needed to try to get Cyrus to relieve himself before I went into therapy. So I entered a little park I'd seen on one of our other walks. I have to confess I  was doubtful he'd go. If it's a new space it takes quite a bit of persistent persuasion  to get him to go and most times that doesn't work. This makes taking him anywhere new kind of stressful.  Joy of joys he was able to relieve himself. 

We went upstairs. My physiotherapist was ready for me. After therapy, I discovered a slight hiccup in my routine. The only elevator in the building was broken. I had had a joint session that day with my therapist and a therapist from a different clinic down the street. This therapist was just leaving and saw me there contemplating the situation. She said she'd go down stairs and take a look around. Her  report was this: a man was on a ladder working on something and there was a big hole in the wall...maybe this had something to do with it?

With this new information, we both went back to the clinic and told the receptionist who immediately called the landlord who in turn called the elevator company. We got a call back from the landlord within twenty minutes saying the elevator company would be there as soon as possible. I called my mother who called Para Transpo and changed the place where the bus was to pick me up and also found out that the bus was runnig fifteen to twenty minutes late. I knew I had to eat, so on my mother's suggestion I asked the secretary to go across the road and get me something.

When she returned with my lunch, I asked her to call my mother again, to update her. It was while she was talking to her that she had this idea - why not call the fire department? It sounded ridiculous but it was better than sitting in the waiting room for who knew how long, missing my bus, and thus missing my French class!  By this time Cyrus and I  were not alone as an elderly couple who also needed the elevator were now there too, waiting to get out.

The first time the receptionist tried calling the fire department, she waited on hold for ten minutes then somehow got disconnected. While all of this was happening my Para bus had arrived. Normally, they're not supposed to come looking for a client, but this man did. We had just gotten through to the fire department and they were on their way. The rule of Para states that a driver is only allowed to wait for a client for three minutes, then he marks a "no show" which gives the client a nasty black mark on their file, and leaves.

Not five minutes after my bus had left, the firemen arrived One of them came in, looks at the chair and confidently told me that they could carry me and the chair down the four flights of stairs to the lobby. I had given Cyrus to the secretary to hold during the process and had briefed a physiotherapist (by this time the only one in the clinic) on how to stand me up in case they needed me out of the chair. On hearing that they didn't, however I  quickly told the secretary to wait till I got down  to bring the dog. Then I followed the fire man out to where the rest of the team was waiting. My squad of rescuers consisted of between four and eight firemen including the chief! 

I was asked to drive to the top of the stairs, then they hooked tethers to my chair and on three they lifted. I was followed by the physio as we'd been told that they were going to put me "on a bit of an angle."

Their version of "a bit of an angle" was sliding down the stairs like I was skiing down Mount Everest! The physiotherapist was there to hold my  head from doing what seemed like a face plant. PLEASE don't let my seat belt break!!!

Once we got to the first landing they set me down and asked me to turn the chair to face the next flight of stairs.  The chair wouldn't start!

  I turned it on and saw that it was flipping though all the drives.  Eventually, I was able to get it on and turned the chair. This procedure repeated at each of the three landings on the way down. The only problem was that the landings got smaller and smaller as we descended.Now, you need to use that imagination of yours to fill in the picture frame above. Me in my power chair doing a face plant, eight firemen skiing downhill with me, and a physiotherapist holding my head all shuffling along on a small landing (which by the way are getting smaller and smaller as we made our way down).

When we finally reached the bottom, I looked toward the door. I'm not sure what I hoped to see because Para left twenty minutes before, But there he was waiting for me! I was able to turn and grab my Prince Cyrus whom the receptionist brought down and thank the firemen, physiotherapist and the receptionist profusly and hop that bus and make it to my French class arriving with just enough time to relieve Cyrus and take a little run to de-stress him and myself before my two hour class!!

Although I don't look forward to struggles and stresses like this one, Monday's adventure reminded me that "in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28
If the elevator hadn't broken, Cyrus and I  would have just gone ahead with the rest of our day. We wouldn't have had to rely on the goodness of other people and ultimately God to get us through.  Even though I really hope nothing like that happens again, I am grateful for the experience as it showed me how many caring people there are in the world and gave them all a chance to shine in the "darkness."