Strangers help after lowest act
A FAMILY has a renewed faith in the kindness of strangers after they were left shocked and outraged by the theft of a White Rock grandmother’s wheelchair.
“It’s the lowest act. I thought how low can you go to take someone’s wheelchair,” Sharon O’Grady said.
Suffering from serious health issues, Mrs O’Grady needs the use of a wheelchair.
“I can’t walk very far and I can’t stand for very long,” the 68-year-old pensioner said.
After buying a new wheelchair last year, she was devastated when it was stolen from the back of her property on Sunday night while she was home.
“I hadn’t even used it,” she said. “Someone’s just brazenly walked in here and taken it.
“In the last 12 months I’ve had nothing but bad luck … and this was just the icing on the cake.”
To add insult to injury Mrs O’Grady had needed the wheelchair because she was going for surgery on Monday.
But Mrs O’Grady and her daughters Kerry Berzinski and Kelly Van Dorssen were overwhelmed by community support after posting about the low act on social media.
Yesterday Bentley Park man Glenn Hamson got in touch to donate a next-to-new wheelchair for her mother.
“I cannot believe the stir it’s created and the generosity of people to a complete stranger,” Mrs Berzinski said.
“I couldn’t fathom how someone would take something from a person who needed a wheelchair.”
The family was not expecting this heartwarming outcome from such a shocking act.
Mrs O’Grady still felt violated that someone had come on her property while she was home and most likely asleep.
“You don’t get much on the pension and to have to fork out on another item and then have it stolen,” Mrs Van Dorssen said.
“Mum’s worked hard all her life and she’s retired and has health problems now … we’re pretty cranky.”