Wheelchair no barrier to Avis’ bucket-list ride
Avis Darnley’s last ride was a good one.
With her wheelchair hitched to the bike ridden by her husband John, the Ka¯ piti woman spent her final days travelling the Otago high country.
She died on Sunday, days after the couple returned home from the holiday, John said. ‘‘I think she did that ride for me. That’s just who we were.’’
The Darnleys had been married for more than 45 years and, despite the Parkinson’s Disease that eventually stole Avis’ speech and mobility, they kept up their adventures until the very end.
Avis was diagnosed with the disease 13 years ago and, as it got progressively worse, she was often stuck at the couple’s Waikanae Beach home. Determined to get her out and about, while getting some exercise himself, former mechanic John designed a bike that would allow just that.
Inspired by old icecream and butchers’ bikes, he came up with the idea of a modified three-wheeler. Instead of a chiller box on the front, he had Avis and her wheelchair.
The couple were often seen flying along the Waikanae cycle trails and in February they completed the Otago Central Rail Trail, a four-day journey that had long been on their bucket list.
John pedalled throughout the days and the couple spent three nights staying along the route; the gear John needed to care for Avis was driven from point to point by a tour company.
Beneath the big Otago skies, Avis began shutting down.
After the ride, as the pair drove further south to visit family, John’s ‘‘wonderful, vibrant wife’’ refused her medication.
‘‘She was tired and I think she’d made up her mind, she’d done the ride for me, she’d seen her friends and family and she thought ‘it’s OK for me to go now’.’’
Avis died aged 72, in the bedroom she shared with the husband who had loved her for so long. There was no funeral – ‘‘funerals are about being sad and we’ve already done that’’ – but John would open up their home to visitors today, a week after the holiday was over.
John would carry on with his life, there would be more tears but, in the end, life was about living, he said. ‘‘Her last ride was a good one. It was a good ride.’’