It was an early spring day and Everett “Willie” Wilcox was wheeling around in his motorized wheelchair, on his way to visit friends and to do errands in and around downtown Lewiston. But as he cruised down Pine Street, something seemed wrong with the chair, a Quickie QM-710 he’d been using since 2016. He heard a dragging noise behind him, so he quickly came to a stop and took a look.
Willie Wilcox Submitted photo
“My left rear tire was gone,” Wilcox says.
It was a humbling experience all around. In his disabled chair, Wilcox had to inch his way down to Ward’s Neighborhood Market to call for help. The fire department came and brought Willie and his banged-up chair down to the station to wait while his mother came and picked him up.
Wilcox is 49 and a lifelong paraplegic due to the spina bifida he was born with, which has resulted in 14 surgeries to date. For 12 years, he worked at the Greyhound bus station in Lewiston, but these days Wilcox doesn’t go any further than the parking lot at Meadowview Park where he lives. Sometimes he doesn’t go out of his apartment at all, because the old Quickie, despite several repairs, just can’t be relied on to get him where he’s going.
No more job. No more cruises around downtown Lewiston where Wilcox has been a regular fixture for years. Things like going to the beach or going out on errands in bad weather are completely out of the question.
Wilcox’s mother has been researching the problem, speaking with various experts in hopes of finding a solution. She has started a GoFundMe page in hopes of getting her son a better wheelchair that will allow him to go anywhere he needs to go without fear of rough terrain or mechanical failure. (At gofundme.com under the title “Help Willie get a new wheelchair.”)
Specifically, they are after the Viking 4×4, a $20,000 mechanical chair that users describe as “unstoppable.” Described as an “off-road mobility chair,” the Viking is designed to handle all sorts of terrain in all sorts of weather so that the disabled can live as independently as they want to,
We caught up with Willie and asked him about the many ways in which his life would change if he gets a better set of wheels beneath him.
What are the limitations of your current chair? The suspension is gone. My front tires are not even touching the ground anymore. The shocks and the suspension are gone for the second time this year, and that’s after taking precautions. I literally cannot go anywhere past Walgreens on Sabattus Street. The sidewalks are hell on this chair so I can’t go to the bank or out to do my groceries or anything. It’s rough not being able to go where I want to go, especially when the weather is nice. I don’t know if my chair is going to fall apart on me again. The worst part of it is that this … thing was fixed at the start of the year.
Where do you tend to go in your chair? I usually go down Sabattus Street, by St. Mary’s hospital. Then I cut down Wood Street, onto Oak, and then down the backside of Oak heading toward Sabattus Street or I go up toward Main Street and cut up between 7 Eleven and Dunkin Donuts. From there, I can go all the way down Main Street. I’d go in town to the Big Apple or Sam’s on Main Street. I used to go to the Lewiston House of Pizza on Lincoln Street and then I’d cross over the foot bridge from Simard-Payne Park and into Bonnie Park in Auburn. I see a lot of people I know when I’m out like that. I see a lot of interesting stuff, too.
What are the benefits of the Viking 4×4? I’d be able to go back to work again. I could go to the beach on it and I can ride on grass without issue. The one I have now, if I go on grass with it, I’m going to go ass-over-teakettle in a hurry. The Viking can handle that no problem. It can climb stairs. It can climb over curbs. I’ll be able to do my own groceries or whatever I need to do. I used to go to Hannaford in this chair, but I can’t do that anymore.
Where’s the first place you’ll go if you land the Viking? When I’m in a good chair, I’m all over creation. I’ll get back to going around town visiting friends. One of my friends lives at Blake Street Towers, so I’ll be able to go down there again. And my niece lives right across the street and then I have a friend who lives on the other side, near The Cage. I’m missing out on all that because of this chair. I just can’t get down there right now.
What would you like to do for work when you can get out again? A cashier job, desk job such as secretary, or my main job would be computers such as data entry.
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