Somehow the subject turned to Eddie's van, and Ann told me she just got
the new license plates for it. But it was still sitting at some remote
repair shop because she had nobody to drive her over to pick it up. Hey,
I can drive a car if I have to ;-) so we just took her car and drove to
that shop to pick up the van. And there it was, the van that folks from
all over the world have donated money for, so Eddie could get back on the
road again. And I had the honor to put the plates on and ride it back to
Broadfield Manor :-) When we arrived there, the staff was about to
bring Eddie to bed, but NO WAY we would let this day end right there!!
Eddie got back into his wheelchair, into the van, we turned on the music
and off we went!! Ann drove us down to Lake Erie, right to the water front
so Eddie got to see the lake. In Geneva we found a nice little restaurant.
We went in, got some very nice food, and Ann successfully tried to have
Eddie taste a little bit of it! Well, it got late and we finally
went back. The hardest part was, saying Goodbye to Eddie... it's
hard to put in words, but as Dana already said so aptly:
"... do yourself a favor and plan to stop in Madison, Ohio, and see
Eddie. It isn't easy, but it is worth every second. You will probably do
as I did, and sit in the parking lot and cry for a while when you leave
him, but do it anyway.
Spend a couple of hours and tell him stories. You will be a better
person for it.
This could have been any of us. "