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The simple things are what he misses. Jamie Miller, whose 53-year-old brother, Franklin father of two Terry Nash is battling ALS, is also battling the isolation that accompanies this debilitating, fatal disease. His sister, Jamie, explains that traveling outside the home with his wheelchair is nearly impossible, and although the family has hopes of saving money for a wheelchair-accessible van – or dreams of finding one that someone else may no longer need – the financial strains the disease places on the family make that wish seem unattainable. Terry had to resign from his 18-year position at Boston Market in January of 2014, and although he has help from disability insurance and social security, which cover a portion of what he had earned, necessary medical equipment or home health services are not funded.
Nash’s family last year began a Go Fund Me page with the hopes of raising funds for this van.
“For those of you that know Terry, you know him to be extremely strong, independent and passionate. He has given 110% to everything in life, his job, playing golf, working in the yard, cooking a great meal with his family and even just enjoying ‘the camp. All of these are slowly being taken away due to this debilitating disease,” writes Miller on the Go Fund Me page. Miller will actually be running the Boston Marathon 2016 in support of the ALS Association (www.alsa.org).
“He needs to be able, really, to get out of the house. When he needs to get out, he has to use a transport chair. Lifting him in and out of the chair and in and out of the car is just getting too difficult and unsafe,” says Miller. Miller says she asked her brother how family and friends could help Terry get out easily, staying safely in his chair. When he responded that he would need a wheelchair-accessible van, she responded.
“A light bulb went off in my head. We will find you one,” she recalls telling him, “but we have come to find out they are extremely expensive, even to get a used one. And when you have somebody with ALS, obviously they are not working anymore.”
Miller says The Ride is available by appointment and useful here and there, but doesn’t allow Terry the “little freedom to be able to leave the house when he wants.”
When asked where he would go, Miller says,” It’s really the simple things. He said, ‘maybe just the mall. I would just like to go to the mall and go around the mall.’ Just the simple things that we take for granted are so difficult. That’s kind of where we are.”
If you would like to help make the dream of a wheelchair-accessible van a reality for the Nash family, visit https://www.gofundme.com/terry-nash.