I'm writing
this thank you to T. L. Mitchell, since he was my nearby contact
and point person through this all having done much research on the
web and by phone all over the country (as many others of you have
done also) and having gone with me to the Mentor location to see
the van they had (which was actually the van we ended up purchasing
- it had been a rental van, but they changed its status to make
it available to us) , and having driven both that van and the one
we trekked up from Akron. I am not a mechanical person at all, so
I relied totally on his savvy to decide on which one to purchase.
He was definitely a godsend to us throughout this whole process,
and very patient with me.
There are so
many others I should thank individually, like Banker Bob, for handling
the contributions as they kept rolling in, the gang who spearheaded
and coordinated the cookbook project (which I LOVE, by the way!
It's got marvelous recipes in it.), all of you wonderful people
who keep coming up with great ideas for raising more and more money,
like contributing items to the ongoiong , seemingly never-ending
auction and then generously puchasing the same, and Sunshine, for
putting the bee in all of your bonnets in the very beginning to
let you know of Eddie's plight. I'm sorry I am sort of out of the
loop as far as knowing who else did what, but please rest assured
that I thank you ALL from the bottom of my heart, even if I don't
name you by name.
I'm working
on finding garage space for our beautiful new chariot (and it really
is GORGEOUS and MARVELOUS!!! It has so many bells and whistles I
may never know how to utilize them all. The heat and air conditioning
are terrific - now I don't have to worry about freezing off Eddie's
nubbins or roasting him like a chicken in the back. It's comfortable
and he can see out all the windows well. Also, not having to worry
about a hydraulic lift eventually breaking down - one of my worst
nightmares was the possibility of it quitting with him hanging out
in a gale, not able to go in or out, up or down.. The minivan with
lowered floor and easy-to-use mechanical ramp is much more sensible.)
I'm probably going to have to take out an ad in a local paper to
secure a garage.
As to the old
van, I've decided to donate it to a good home. It was mentioned
to me that there's a family with a son at Broadfield who goes home
almost every weekend and they're looking for transportation for
him. The van is old enough that there's probably not any resale
value left (it's an' 88), so I think giving it away to someone less
fortunate than Eddie would make us all feel good.
Well, I could
go on and on about how wonderful you all are. I don't know of any
people as fortunate as we are to have friends like you.
As soon as
we get a warm and sunny day and I can take time off from playing
real estate agent, I'll attempt to get pictures of Eddie in his
wonderful new vehicle.
Come to Eddie's
run in August and check out where your hard-earned money went. By
that time, I should also have purchased an inflatable bed, so that
we can get Eddie down for a rest (after removing the front passenger
seat) during his run.