MGA News Autumn 2001

Things aint what they used to be. The poor old girl is getting to the point where she can’t cope with me any more. No, I am not making disparaging remarks about Mrs Gravis, its Genevieve my trusty old electric wheel chair, which is now approaching its 14th birthday. I call her Genevieve because like me she has become a bit of an old crock. Over the years Mrs Gravis and I have had several adventures with her and she has set me a number of challenges in terms of repairs. Sadly old age has now caught up with her and one of the motors is no longer pulling its weight, or mine. I have tried to get spares, my local agent shook his head and made sad remarks about age and the availability of spares. Not to be beaten I rang the company, who were very kind and sympathetic, but they told me that they were at least four take-overs down the line from the original manufacturers and did not have spares for machines that old. It looks like Genevieve has got to be pensioned off.

Fortunately I am not with out a back up. About four months before he died, my father bought a disabled scooter. He had four glorious weeks with it, exasperated us all by asking why he had never had a motorised chair before. Sadly he then fell ill and was never well enough to use it again. For years I had been telling him that by using a wheel chair you do not admit defeat, but expand the range of activities you can enjoy. No one is ever ‘confined to a wheel chair’ if they can still get out of it and walk for short distance, albeit with the aid of a stick or frame. I use my chair as anyone else might use a bicycle or car, to acquire mobility over distances that are too far to walk. I have never regretted having the use of a wheelchair.

When Father died I inherited the scooter, which gave us a mobility problem, how to get it in the car. Although it will break down into a number of pieces, it will not fit in our car. In any case Mrs Gravis could not lift it in for me, as it is a two-man job. In any case, the onset of arthritis in her hands had already caused us to question whether she should even be struggling to put Genevieve on the rack on the back of the car.

I could have course have gone for the motobility option and had a specially adapted vehicle, but I am an independent soul (Mrs Gravis says variously, awkward, obstinate, stubborn or worse) and looked round for another alternative. We have a tow hitch on the car, put there to take Genevieve’s rack, so I decided to find out if there is a similar, though larger rack, for a scooter. I got in touch with our Social Services, who knew what I was after and put me, in touch with a local ‘Independent Living Foundation’ who give free advice on disability aids, but do not sell them. The OT there soon sent me details of three possible sources and I contacted each of them. The first thing I learned was that the combined weight of a scooter and rack clamped to the tow bar could be dangerous, it would seem that a trailer is the safer alternative.

Mrs Gravis and I mulled over the idea of having the trailer and, deciding that I would be a long time dead and might as well enjoy the extra freedom to go out that it would give. I ordered one. Mrs Gravis and I have now enjoyed several trips to Gardens, shopping centres and other places we would not otherwise have been able to enjoy.

Did we have any problems? Well, just one. On our first outing, accompanied by friends, I forgot to lift the jockey wheel once the trailer was hitched. This is not, of course a road wheel. We had gone about a mile when I was aware of a terrible graunching sound from the rear of the car. We stopped and I found that the rubber tyre had been completely stripped from the jockey wheel. A good friend replaced it for me and since then it has been great.

MGA NEWS Autumn 2001

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