Imagine you are disabled, struggling with rheumatoid arthritis, and showering is a struggle. You have two bathrooms, but both showers require a step-up to get into the shower and you have no hand-rails to assist you in and out of the shower. Then the shower is so small you can’t fit a stool or a chair, so every time you shower you are afraid you are going to fall. Every shower is full of anxiety. Am I going to fall? If I do will I be able to get up? Can taking a shower be the thing that puts me in the hospital?
This was the problem for Joseph and Eloise. Getting in and out of the shower was an anxiety ridden struggle. The shower needed repair, the shower faucet didn’t work properly anymore and had to be turned with a screwdriver and the shower stall was too tall to step into and too small to fit a shower chair. Then Eloise fell and hit the sink trying to exit the shower. That is when they applied for the Habitat Home Repair Program.
Through our program, Joseph and Eloise were able to have their bathroom remodeled. In order to put in a larger, more accessible shower, it needed to be moved. This meant tearing up the flooring and building a new shower stall complete with handrails in and around the shower. After a new coat of paint, new baseboards (because the old ones were literally made out of cardboard), and the installation of safety grab bars throughout the bathroom, this bathroom is finally everything they need it to be.
Eloise told us, “It is a to die for bathroom! Way more than I expected. It is so accessible that if I had a wheelchair I could get in.” This is the type of relief that the Home Repair Program brings. Instead of anxiety and struggle, showering is finally the relief that it should be.
