Quadriplegic Woman Hopes For A Home - Still

Below is information I received from a friend of mine in Maine who does volunteer work for Buckmasters Disabled program. She didn’t ask me to post this. She was only sharing and seeking help.

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Jennifer Turner didn’t get the house she’d been planning for this summer, but the quadriplegic Auburn resident has some new help and a new timeline.

She now hopes to start construction next spring.

Turner, 38, was injured in 1985 when a pulp truck hit her family car, leaving her with a broken neck and vertebrae, no use of her legs and limited use of her arms and hands.

In 1993, she moved into a Barker Mill Arms apartment with the hope of being more independent. She busied herself in the grounds around the building, planting flower gardens in any empty space she could find. She soon became known as New Auburn’s flower lady and she helped raise money for physical education camps for children with similar injuries.

But her physical problems worsened two years ago. Years of relying on her arms to maneuver her wheelchair and pull herself from room to room, combined with damage from her original injuries, left her with severe tendon damage in her wrists. Surgery last year has helped, but not much.

Her Barker Mill apartment is not handicapped accessible. She can’t turn the doorknobs, turn on the faucet or even get herself out of bed. She relies on family and neighbors to get her up in the morning and to let her in and out of her apartment. A powered lift would help, but the structure at Barker won’t support the weight of the system.

Her choice: go into a nursing home or build her own home with the equipment she needs to be self-sufficient.

Last spring, the city agreed to sell Turner a half-acre of tax-acquired land just north of Anita Avenue for $39,500, its assessed value. She won’t have to pay for the mortgage on the land until she sells the property or ceases to live there.

With that agreement and help from a variety of programs and grants, Turner had hoped to build her home over the summer. But the federal housing program she’d been counting on changed and her funding suddenly disappeared.

About the same time, a childhood friend saw a story about Turner in the Sun Journal. The friend, Tammy Nosek, was a civil engineer in New York and she got the American Society of Civil Engineers, a charitable group, involved.

The society agreed to design the house, help with a drainage plan and solicit donations. Other people and groups have offered to pay for the lift, provide electrical services, paint the house and provide other donations.

Turner still needs excavation services, adaptive equipment and accessible appliances, building materials and construction management. If she can get that help, she hopes to start construction in the spring.

For more information or to offer help, call Auburn Community Development Coordinator Gail Phoenix at 333-6601, ext. 1336 or Tammy Nosek at (845) 567-6656.

Posted by Tom Remington

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