Goodrich- Emily Hansel is finally home and thanks to local volunteers, she has a new wooden ramp for her wheelchair.
To welcome Emily home on Aug. 9, eight Atlas Township firefighters and seven Ortonville Knights of Columbus worked most of the day Aug. 2 to build a wooden ramp to help Emily’s mother and father, Lisa and John, get Emily in and out of the house more easily and safely.
‘We used to have to get Emily’s wheelchair down the stairs on the front porch or down the stairs in the garage,? said John. ‘It was really hard to do, especially for Lisa.?
Born with multiple disabilities and unable to walk, crawl or stand, 5-year-old Emily had just learned how to pull herself up to a sitting position, when she suffered a stroke on Jan. 10.
Then the unthinkable happened. The stress Lisa felt during Emily’s stroke and hospitalization brought her underlying seizure disorder (caused by head trauma from a fall) to the surface. Just a week later, on Jan. 16, Lisa suffered a debilitating seizure which put her in Beaumont Hospital for five days.
John became overwhelmed driving back and forth to Beaumont to visit Emily and Lisa. That, along with mounting medical bills and going back and forth to his job at E.D.S. (Electronic Data Systems) in Lansing, 77 miles each way, added to John’s fatigue and created higher than usual gas bills.
When the Hillcrest Farms Neighborhood heard about the Hansel family, they sprang into action to help them. They found out about the high medical bills and John’s inability to pay his phone, gas bill, fuel costs and other bills, so they decided to have a soda pop fundraising drive for them and also created the ‘Emily Hansel – Walk With Me Fund? which helped the Hansels get back on their feet.
Now, with the help of local volunteers, the community has come through again by building a wooden ramp for the Hansels.
‘It’s been a tough year,? said John. ‘We prayed, ‘Lord, please make all of this go away,? and we knew there were so many people praying for us, that really helped. We are living proof that prayer changes things and we believe more in prayer now.?
Lisa and Emily are doing much better now, John said. Emily is sitting up on her own again and many of the neighbors and medical staff say they think Emily looks better and is much healthier now.
John and Lisa say they are so grateful to their community for everything they have done.
‘When we thought all hope was lost, we made it through, thanks to so many people who raised money for us to show that they cared,? said John. ‘We love Emily so much, we don’t know what we would do without her. We celebrate her life every single day.?